NEW DELHI, May 31: The Lok Sabha elections in the month of May when many parts of the country sizzle in high temperature has already taken a toll of at least 40 lives including 25 in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as heatwave conditions gripped 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. The officials on Thursday had reported at least 23 deaths including 10 in Odisha, 8 in Bihar, 4 in Jharkhand and one in UP while five heat-related deaths in Rajasthan were reported earlier.
Officials in Uttar Pradesh — where 13 seats including in Sonbhadra district and Mirzapur are going to polls on Saturday — said at least 15 election staff died after suspected heatstroke. Dr. Raj Bahadur Kamal, the principal of Mirzapur’s Maa Vindhyavasini Autonomous State Medical College, said 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 adhikaari (consolidation officer), and one peon in the home guard team. He said they were brought to the facility with high fever and high blood pressure.
In Sonbhadra district, two polling staff died due to heat-related causes while nine personnel are being treated at a hospital, officials said. Officials in Uttar Pradesh’s in Kaushambi said two people, including an elderly woman, died following heat stroke on Thursday, at the district hospital.
In neighbouring Bihar — where eight Lok Sabha seats are voting on Saturday — officials said fourteen people, including 10 polling personnel, have died due to heatstroke in the past two days. In a statement issued by the Disaster Management Department in Bihar, most of the fatalities were reported from Bhojpur, where five officials on election duty died of heatstroke. Three election officials died in Rohtas, and one each died in Kaimur and Aurangabad districts, it said. Four other people died in different parts of the state, it added.
In UP’s Mirzapur. Which recorded 47 degree Celsius on Friday, most of the heatwave casualties were the security staff doing duty on the streets. “We have admitted 23 polling officials in our hospital today. Out of them, one each is from PAC, Fire Service and civil police; the rest are home guards. A total of six mortalities have been reported so far,” said principal of Mirzapur (Divisional) Medical College and Hospital, Dr RB Lal.
Superintendent of police, Mirzapur, Abhinandan said, “Voting for Lok Sabha election is scheduled in Mirzapur on June 1. For it, the polling parties today (on Friday) left for the polling stations. During it, six home guards died tragically. Two Home guards were from Gonda and one each was from Prayagraj, Basti, Kaushambi and Mirzapur. Their Bodies have been sent for the post mortem which is being done. Their kin have been informed.”
According to the India Meteorological Department, Mirzapur recorded a maximum temperature of 47 degrees Celsius. The temperature is predicted to remain high at 49 degrees Celsius. Heat wave to severe heat wave conditions are expected in isolated areas of West Rajasthan, East Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Vidarbha on May 31. Isolated heat wave conditions are also likely on June 1, it said.
Bihar too is reeling under sizzling heat as the mercury crossed 44 degrees Celsius at several places. On Thursday, Buxar was the hottest at 47.1 degrees Celsius. Due to the heatwave conditions, all schools, coaching institutes and anganwadi centres were shut till June 8.
In a post on X, leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav said, “When government-run schools have already been closed because of pressure from the opposition, why are teachers being asked to come to schools in this intense heat wave conditions? What will teachers do when students themselves are not in school? Teachers must be given leave in this scorching heat.”
Fifty-seven seats across seven states and the Union Territory of Chandigarh will go to the polls in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, including Varanasi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term. Among these, eight constituencies in Bihar and 13 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, including Mirzapur, will also vote on Saturday.