Telugu actors spotted at polling booths in AP, Telangana; rains play spoilsport in some areas in MP

New Delhi, May 13 (PTI) Prominent actors from the Telugu film industry were out to vote on Monday for the elections in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, rains played spoilsport affecting voter turnout in some areas, while people queued up early at polling stations in states such as Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand to escape the heat.

Polling was held in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union Territories in the fourth of the seven-phase general elections. Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are held simultaneously.

Here are the snapshots from the day: ** Rains disrupted polling in some areas of the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat and also in parts of some other constituencies of Madhya Pradesh.

** Chiranjeevi, NT Rama Rao, Allu Arjun, Brahmanandam, Nani, Jeevitha Rajasekhar, Rajendra Prasad, Naga Chaitanya, Manchu Manoj and Srikanth were among actors from the Telugu film industry who cast their vote in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. ** In Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, the first vote was cast by a 'divyaang' (physically-challenged) voter. Members of the Tharu tribe, indigenous to Nepal, also exercised their franchise in the district, which shares border with the Himalayan state.

* In Etah, at Gautam Buddha Inter College in Aliganj tehsil, part of the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency, District Magistrate Prem Ranjan Singh took an elderly woman on a wheelchair to cast her vote.

** Indore resident Gurdeep Kaur Vasu, 32, who is speech, hearing and visually-impaired, cast her vote at a polling station in the Madhya Pradesh. This is the second time she has voted.

* At least 70 visually impaired women in Mahesh Drihtiheen Kalyan Sangh in Indore turned up to vote, setting an example for others in the constituency, which has the highest number of voters in Madhya Pradesh.

* Divyang brand ambassador Vikram Agnihotri exercised his franchise and got his toe inked at a polling booth in Indore.

** In Telangana's Kodangal, a polling officer welcomed people with roses at a wedding-themed poll station. Women-managed pink booths were seen across all constituencies.

** A green polling booth was set up at the Zilla Parishad Primary school in Kanherwadi in Maharashtra's Beed district with the objective to make people aware about tree plantation.

* Marathi actors Subodh Bhave and Sonali Kulkarni and singer Arya Ambekar exercised their franchise.

** There were also reports of poll boycott from some villages of Shahjahanpur district in Uttar Pradesh and some areas of Odisha.

** Like in the previous phases, a the elderly reached polling stations to exercise their franchise, some on wheelchairs.

** In Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, three generations of the Abdullah family cast their vote. National Conference president and former J-K chief minister Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and his two grandsons and first-time electors Zahir and Zamir exercised their franchise at a polling station. “ ** People exercised their vote for the first time at their own booth at 'Budha Pahad' -- a former Maoist hotbed in Jharkhand's Palamu Lok Sabha constituency -- after three decades. It was freed recently from the red rebels' control by security forces.

** In Andhra Pradesh, a specially-abled person voted using a braille voter slip in Kakinada Rural constituency, while at Edulagudem village in Eluru's Agiripalli mandal, 104-year-old voter J Venkata Ratnam also exercised his democratic right.

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