Tragic Heatwave: 15 Poll Personnel Die in Uttar Pradesh

Thirteen poll personnel in Mirzapur and two in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, succumbed to high fever and blood pressure amid a heatwave. Twenty-three others are hospitalized. The authorities are investigating the exact cause of deaths, likely related to extreme heat conditions. Compensation for families is demanded.

Thirteen poll personnel deployed in this Uttar Pradesh district died following high fever and high blood pressure amid heatwave conditions in the region. Twenty-three others were admitted in hospital.

Two more people on election duty died and nine taken ill of suspected heat stroke in Sonbhadra district, a senior official said on Friday.

Dr Raj Bahadur Kamal, the principal of Maa Vindhyavasini Autonomous State Medical College in Mirzapur, told PTI that 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 died.

The exact cause of the deaths is being ascertained, he said.

They had high grade fever (high body temperature) and high blood pressure when they were brought to the facility, he added.

Kamal said, ''Of the 13 casualties, four were brought dead. Of these four, two were homeguard jawans. Of the seven homeguard jawans who died, five succumbed after they were brought to the hospital in a span of 20-25 minutes. The deceased homeguards were in the 50-55 age group.'' As of now, 23 are admitted in the hospital. Of these, one is a Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawan, one from the fire services and one from the civil police, he said.

''All of them came with high grade temperature. Almost all of them had high blood pressure and high sugar levels. In most of the homeguards, co-morbidity was seen. The cause of deaths will be known in the post-mortem report,'' Kamal added.

The region has been witnessing unusually high temperatures over the past few days. Polling is scheduled to be held in Mirzapur on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police (Mirzapur) Abhinandan said in a video message on X, ''Lok Sabha elections are to be held on June 1 in Mirzapur district. Polling parties have been dispatched today. During this period, six home guards died tragically. Two of them are from Gonda district. One is from Prayagraj, one from Basti, one from Kaushambi and one from Mirzapur district.'' The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, he said and added that the victims' families were informed.

Reacting to the deaths of the poll personnel in Mirzapur, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post in Hindi on X, demanded that the government break its silence and provide relief to the families that have been ''ruined due to mismanagement''.

He also demanded that the government immediately announce a compensation of Rs 5 crore each for the victims' families and provide the best treatment to all the other workers who have fallen ill due to the heat.

''In this government, the lives of employees have no value. Neither are they getting their salaries on time … nor are they getting the benefits of the old pension scheme. Employees are being forced to live a stressful life by engaging them in unnecessary work and the blame for the government's corruption is also being put on the heads of the same employees and officers. Totally reprehensible!'' Yadav said in the post.

In Sonbhadra, the personnel were being dispatched for poll duty from the Polytechnic College in Robertsganj -- Sonbhadra's administrative headquarters -- in the afternoon when 11 people suddenly fell ill, said District Magistrate Chandra Vijay Singh. They were immediately sent to the district hospital where Nityanand Pandey (50) and a 35-year-old poll duty personnel died.

The nine poll personnel are undergoing treatment at the district hospital where their condition is said to be serious, said Singh.

While the exact cause of deaths is yet to be ascertained, the district magistrate said the symptoms appeared to be that of heat stroke.

Singh said the exact cause of the deaths will be known after post-mortem.

Thirteen seats in Uttar Pradesh go to the polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)