Heatstroke killed 33 polling staff on last voting day: Uttar Pradesh election chief

At least 33 Indian polling staff died on the last day of voting from heatstroke in just one state, a top election official said on Sunday, after scorching temperatures gripped swathes of the country.

While there have been reports of multiple deaths from the intense heatwave — with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places — the dozens of staff dying in one day marks an especially grim toll.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said temperatures at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.9°C (116°F).

Navdeep Rinwa, chief electoral officer for the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where voting in the seventh and final stage of elections ended Saturday, said 33 polling personnel died due to the heat.

The figure included security guards and sanitation staff.

“A monetary compensation of 1.5 million rupees ($18,000) will be provided to the families of the deceased,” Rinwa told reporters.

Experts say that when a person is dehydrated, extreme heat exposure thickens their blood and causes organs to shut down.

Rinwa reported a separate incident in which a man queueing to vote in the city of Ballia lost consciousness while waiting in line.

“The voter was transported to a health facility, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival,” Rinwa said.

India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures. But years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

Modi eyes victory as Kejriwal readies for jail

A top opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would return to jail on Sunday as his bail conditions demand after elections that were widely expected to result in another landslide victory for the Hindu-nationalist leader.

Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an alliance formed to compete against Modi, was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe but later given a limited release to allow him to campaign.

He said he would hand himself to prison authorities in Delhi on Sunday afternoon.

“I came out for election campaign for 21 days… today I will surrender,” Kejriwal wrote on social media.

Exit polls showed Modi was well on track to triumph, with the premier saying he was confident that “the people of India have voted in record numbers” to re-elect his government.

Results are expected on Tuesday but supporters of Modi in his constituency of Varanasi — the spiritual capital of the Hindu faith — said they believed their leader’s win was secure. “His government is coming back,” said Nand Lal, selling flowers outside a temple.

Voting in the seventh and final staggered round of the six-week poll ended on Saturday, held in brutally hot conditions across swaths of the country.

India’s top court granted Kejriwal bail last month, giving a fleeting boost to the opposition’s quixotic campaign to oust Modi, but ordered him to return to custody once voting ended.

Kejriwal, 55, has been chief minister for nearly a decade and first came to office as a staunch anti-corruption crusader. His government was accused of corruption when it implemented a policy to liberalise the sale of liquor in 2021 and give up a lucrative government stake in the sector.

The policy was withdrawn the following year but the resulting probe into the alleged corrupt allocation of licences has since led to the jailing of two top Kejriwal allies.

Kejriwal said he would visit a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, pray at a Hindu temple and “meet all the workers” and leaders at his party headquarters before returning to prison.

“All of you take care of yourselves,” Kejriwal added. “I will take care of you all in jail. If you are happy, then your Kejriwal will also be happy in jail.”

Rallies in support of Kejriwal were held in numerous other big cities around India after he was taken into custody in March. He has consistently denied wrongdoing and refused to relinquish his post after his arrest.

He was greeted by more than 1,000 exuberant supporters when he walked out of jail in May and promised to fight to unseat Modi “with all of my might”.

“We have to save this country from dictatorship,” he told the crowd, before devoting his three-week respite from jail to barnstorming campaign appearances urging supporters to the polls.