With rising temperature above 40 degrees in Uttar Pradesh, an elderly voter collapsed while standing in queue to cast his vote. He later reportedly died.
On May 31, at least 40 suspected heat-related deaths, 25 of them of staff deployed on Lok Sabha poll duty in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as heatwave conditions gripped a large swathe of the country.
Among the fatalities recorded on Friday, the maximum 17 were from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Bihar, five from Odisha, and four from Jharkhand, where officials said more than 1,300 people are hospitalised with heatstroke conditions.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, 13 poll staff died at the hospital. The deceased include seven home guard jawans, three sanitation workers, one clerk posted at the Chief Medical Officer’s office, one chakbandi adhikari (consolidation officer), and one peon in the home guard team.
Intense heatwaves will continue to sway over many parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh; in some parts of Bihar, east Madhya Pradesh; in isolated pockets of Odisha, Jharkhand.
Lok Sabha voting is in its seventh phase today (June 1). Voting is underway in eight constituencies in Bihar, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand, six in Odisha, nine in West Bengal and 13 in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh respectively (13). Polling will also be held in Chandigarh.
