EVM glitches reported in Maharashtra and UP

NEW DELHI: Bypolls were held on Monday in four Lok Sabha and ten assembly seats across the country, days after a joint opposition alliance claimed power in Karnataka.

As complaints about malfunctioning voting machines flowed in from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh during the by-elections on Monday, the Election Commission said the "severe heat conditions" were interfering with the machines.

Calling the reports of large-scale voting machine malfunction "an exaggeration", the commission said it is taking steps to correct it.

The four LS seats where by-polls were held are Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, Bhandara-Gondiya and Palghar in Maharashtra and the lone seat for the lower house of Parliament in Nagaland.

The Kairana LS seat is the next big test for the BJP versus a unified opposition. A by-poll is being held here because of the death of sitting BJP MP Hukum Singh. The saffron party has fielded Singh's daughter Mriganka Singh. She faces the Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) Tabassum Hasan, who is supported by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Assembly bypolls - including one Assembly seat election - were held in Chenganur in Kerala, Noorpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, or RR Nagar in Karnataka, Ampati in Meghalaya, Sillia and Gomia in Jharkhand, Jokihat in Bihar, Maheshtala in West Bengal, Sahkot in Punjab and Tharali in Uttarakhand.

One of the Assembly bypoll contests to watch out for is the RK Nagar one in Karnataka. It's the one that's an election and not a bypoll. This constituency didn't see Assembly polls on May 12 along with the rest of Karnataka.

Voting here was rescheduled for Monday, after 9,567 electoral photo identity cards were found in a flat in Jalahalli on May 9, three days before the state went to polls. Here, the contest is among the BJP, the Congress and the JD(S). The latter two are fielding separate candidates, despite coming together to form the government. Detailed report on P5