First phase of Lok Sabha polls begins amid tight security

INDIAN ELECTION NEWS: The first phase of polling out of five of elections to Lok Sabha has begun on Thursday on a moderate note. This phase of election polls will decide the fate of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha and TRS president K Chandrasekar Rao.

The voting began in 124 constituencies that is spread across 15 states and 2 union territories. In most places the polling will close at 1700 hrs and in naxal-infested areas at 1500 hrs.

More than 14.31 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballot across 1.85 lakh polling stations in the 124 constituencies set up by the Election Commission and secured by tens of thousands of police personnel.

In today’s poll 154 assembly segments in Andhra Pradesh and 70 in Orissa have also been included.

All over is 20 seats in Kerala, 11 in Chhattisgarh and 2 each in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, 13 out of 40 seats in Bihar, 16 out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra 13 (48), Andhra Pradesh 22 (42), Jharkhand 6 (14), Orissa 10 (21), Assam 3 (14), Manipur 1 (2) and Jammu and Kashmir 1 (6). Single seats in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Mizoram and Nagaland are also being covered in this first phase of election.

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Snippets: First phase of Lok Sabha polls begins amid tight security, Lok Sabha Election, Indian Election, India Election, General Election 2009
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Election Commission gags electronic media on poll coverage

INDIAN ELECTION NEWS: To avoid any type of misuse of electronic media, the Election Commission said on Tuesday that the electronic media cannot telecast anything that has the tendency of influencing voters in areas where elections are to take place, in the 48 hours preceding voting.

Election Commission has also banned dissemination of results of opinion and exit polls by the media in a separate order. This gag on the electronic media is issued under section 126 of the Representation of People's Act. It prohibits displaying of any election matter on television or any related medium 48 hours before poll. This step is taken because it has been seen as unsuitable for multi-phase elections as well as innocent of the ways the media functions.

The TV channels with their satellite uplink beam programmes of all-India relevance which are completely uncircumscribed by the geographical division that the commission wants to enforce.

The step also carries the danger of harassment of the media by local authorities. We can cross check the case of a national news channel that may show a programme on starvation deaths in Andhra Pradesh or else impact of Salwa Judum in the Chhattisgarh which, like most of others, have multi-phase polls.

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Snippets of Election Commission gags electronic media on poll coverage: Indian Election News, Electronic Media, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Multi-Phase Polls, Election Commission

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