LS polls: 68.01 pc turnout in MP till 5 pm; newlywed couple, visually impaired women among voters
An average voter turnout of 68.01 per cent was recorded till 5 pm on Monday in eight Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, where polling was underway in the fourth and final phase of the general elections in the state, officials said.
Bhopal: An average voter turnout of 68.01 per cent was recorded till 5 pm on Monday in eight Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, where polling was underway in the fourth and final phase of the general elections in the state, officials said.
As per official data, Mandsour recorded 71.76 per cent polling, followed by Dewas at 71.53 per cent, Khargone at 70.8 per cent, Ratlam at 70.61 per cent, Ujjain at 70.44 per cent, Khandwa at 68.21 per cent, Dhar at 67.55 per cent and Indore 56.53 per cent.
At least 70 visually impaired women in Mahesh Drihtiheen Kalyan Sangh in Indore turned up for voting by setting an example for others in the constituency, which has the highest number of voters in the state, officials said.
They voted in a booth set up in the Green Field school in the city.
Divyang brand ambassador Vikram Agnihotri exercised his franchise and got his toe inked at a polling booth in Indore.
Among the early voters, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and his family cast their votes in his hometown Ujjain, while in the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat, Congress candidate former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria, BJP nominee Anita Chauhan and her minister husband Nagar Singh Chauhan exercised their franchise.
BJP minister and senior party leader Kailash Vijaywargiya and his family members cast their vote in Indore.
A group of voters reached the polling station in a decorated bullock cart in the Nepanagar assembly segment under the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat.
A newlywed couple arrived at the Nepanagar booth in their wedding finery to cast their votes.
In Mandsour, polling staff were seen taking an elderly voter in a wheelchair to cast her ballot.
Voters in Rahimgarh and Picchla gram panchayats under the Mandsour Lok Sabha seats initially refused to participate in polling, citing unresolved issues, but were pacified by officials and brought to the polling booths.
State Finance Minister Jagdish Devda and his family also exercised their franchise in the Mandsour Lok Sabha seat.
Earlier in the day, rains disrupted polling in some areas of the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat and parts of some other constituencies, but polling went on peacefully, Madhya Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan told PTI.
Voting began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm in the eight constituencies where 18,007 polling stations have been set up, as per officials.
A total of 74 candidates — 69 men and five women — are in the fray in the fourth phase.
There are 1,63,70,654 eligible voters, including 82,48,091 men, 81,22,175 women and 388 persons of the third gender, the CEO earlier said.
Spread over 64 assembly segments in 15 districts in the state’s Malwa-Nimar region, these eight constituencies are considered the bastion of the BJP.
The Indore Lok Sabha seat has the maximum number of 14 candidates, and Khargone has the least five nominees.
Of the eight seats, Indore also has the highest number of eligible voters at 25,26,803, while Ujjain has the least number of 17,98,704 electors, the CEO said.
In Ratlam, there is a straight fight between former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria (73) and state Forest Minister Nagar Singh Chauhan’s wife Anita Chauhan.
In Indore, the ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option has unexpectedly hogged the limelight after Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination at the last minute and joined the BJP.
As Bam’s move set the stage for a one-sided contest for BJP’s Shankar Lalwani, who won from Indore by nearly 5.4 lakh votes last time, the Congress urged voters to hit the NOTA button.
Of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, polling was held in 21 in the first three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7. Votes will be counted on June 4.
