The Hyderabad police on Monday registered an FIR against Madhavi Latha, BJP’s Hyderabad constituency candidate, for allegedly trespassing into a polling booth and asking some Muslim women voters to remove their burqa for identity check.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation commissioner, Ronald Rose, who is also the returning officer for Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency directed the Malakpet police to register an FIR against Madhavi Latha under Sections 186 (voluntarily obstructing a public servant from discharging of duties), 171C (voluntarily interfering in the exercise of electoral right) and, besides Section 132 of the Representation of the People Act, 505 (1)(c) (circulation of a statement with an intent to incite a class or community of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Earlier during the day, the BJP candidate visited a polling booth (No. 122) at Azampura in Malakpet assembly segment and started asking the Muslim women voters about their identity. A video of Madhavi Latha asking the Muslim women voters to remove their veil to disclose their identity has gone viral and is circulating on social media platforms. She was trying to verify if the faces of the women voters matched the photos on their voter ID Cards.

Madhavi Latha took to her social media handle on X and posted  that there were many discrepancies in the voters’ list and as a result, she came there to verify the same. The Police officers stationed at the polling booth seemed very dull, they were not at all active. She added that they were not checking anything.

She said senior citizen voters were coming here but their names had been deleted from the list. She also pointed out that a few of them are residents of Goshamahal but their names are in the list of Rangareddy. Madhavi Latha defended her decision and told the media that there was nothing wrong in her move to ask some women voters to verify their identity.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that he would be out of the jail if I.N.D.I.A bloc comes to power at the Centre in the undergoing Lok Sabha elections. He was addressing AAP councillors in the New Delhi where he emphasised that the recent Supreme Court decision to grant him interim bail is nothing short of a miracle, attributing it to a divine intervention that enabled him to be out for 20 days.

Kejriwal said the Aam Aadmi Party leaders are respected and loved by the people but the BJP fears AAP due to its work. The Delhi chief minister said that he has to go back to jail on 2^nd June.  He told his party councillors he will be watching the election results inside the jail on 4^th June and if the I.N.D.I.A bloc comes to power, he promised that he will be back on 5^th June.

Kejriwal recalled after he had been put in jail, the love of his people boosted his morale. He said the ED tried a lot to break AAP many times but the people did not go anywhere. The Delhi CM added his AAP councillors have set an example for other parties.

He said the ED tried their best to break him inside the jail He recalled sometimes they used to insult him and did not even give him insulin for 15 days. He further added that he is a diabetes patient and he had been repeatedly telling the doctor to give him insulin.

The Aam Aadmi Party supremo stated that there were 2 CCTV cameras installed inside his cell in Tihar jail and the feed was monitored by 13 officers. It was said that the CCTV feed was also provided to Prime Minister Office. Kejriwal said this means Modi ji is monitoring him. He went on to say that he did not know what grudge PM Modi has against him.

Voting for the 4th phase of Lok Sabha elections is undergoing in 96 parliamentary constituencies across 9 states and 1 Union territory on Monday. 62% voter turnout have been recorded till 5pm, with Jammu & Kashmir being the lowest at 75.66 % and West Bengal being highest at 35.75%.

All 175 seats of the state legislative assembly of Andhra Pradesh and 28 seats of the state legislative assembly of Odisha are also witnessing undergoing elections on Monday. Voters are exercising their franchise in all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, 25 in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Uttar Pradesh, 5 in Bihar, 4 in Jharkhand, 8 in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, 4 in Odisha, 8 in West Bengal, and 1 in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Election Commission of India said a total of 1,717 candidates from 10 States/UTs are contesting elections in phase 4 of the Lok Sabha elections. According to ECI, a total of 4,264 nominations were filed for 96 parliamentary constituencies all over India.

The electoral fate of many prominent candidates, including Union minister Giriraj Singh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi and  Trinamool Congress leader Mohua Moitra, is going to be decided today as elections takes place in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union territories in the 4th phase of the general elections.

Similarly, all 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh are witnessing a 3-way battle involving the ruling YSRC, the Congress-led INDIA bloc, and the NDA, which includes the BJP, Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, and Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP).  28 legislative assembly seats in Odisha are also undergoing elections in this phase.

A total of 1,717 candidates are contesting for the Lok Sabha seats, and more than 19 lakh polling officials have been stationed at 1.92 lakh polling booths to as a total of over 17.70 crore eligible voters, including 8.73 women, in the 4th phase of the Lok Sabha elections.