NEW DELHI: One communist party of India (Marxist) worker was killed in a clash with cadres of the Jharkhand party in west Bengal on Tuesday taking the countrywide toll in pre-poll violence to 47 with barely five days left for the parliamentary elections to begin.
Six candidates contesting parliamentary and assembly polls in the Meerut district of northern Indian Uttar Pradesh are “untraceable” and security personnel sent to search their addresses have returned without any clue police said.
A total of 111 candidates contesting the parliamentary and assembly elections in Punjab are “untraceable” according to the inspector genzral of Police (election cell) S R Sharma.
Incidents of prepoll violence have been reported from various parts of the country with Bihar and Punjab being the worst hit though the general law and order situation has been declared to be normal for a peaceful general election.
In Punjab five contestants including one for parliament were killed by the gunmen leading to countermanding of elections in the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency and the assembly seats of Jalandhar cantonment Dhanaula Moga Bhagapurana Dirba and Sangrur.
Sharma said a total of 13 candidates were currently lodged in different jails facing various charges.
Polls have also been countermanded for the parliamentary seats of Barh in Bihar Kutch in Gujarat and two assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh following the death of independent candidates.
With this the number of parliamentary constituencies which will g0 to polls has come down to 534 Assembly elections will be held only for 1457 seats
In Uttar Pradesh with its 80 million electormrwand with 85 parliamentary and 425 assembly seats the din and bustle of electioneering has not yet reached its crescendo despite a plethora of posters and graffiti.
The first leg of electioneering has ended with most of the prominent national leaders including Rajiv Gandhi Chandra Shekhar Lal Krishan Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee addressing election meetings at several places
Janata Dal leader Vishwanath Pratap Singh who already toured parts of the state earlier has begun the second leg of his campaign in Uttar Pradesh.
There has been a distinct change in campaign strategies for both parliamentary and assembly polls this time with only the Congress I and the Rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party projecting themselves as having a hold all over the state with the Janata Dal the Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) and communists just concentrating on their respective pockets of influence
While the SJP has intensified its campaign in the caster region the Janata Dal is wooing voters of central UP with the Ajit Singh group in the party concentrating on the Jat-dominated western region.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 17, 1991
