35% voting recorded in Madhya Pradesh by 2 pm
35% voting recorded in Madhya Pradesh by 2 pm
Around 35 per cent voter turnout was recorded by 2 pm on Tuesday across the nine constituencies of Madhya Pradesh where polling for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections is underway. The seats where the polling is underway are Bhopal, Guna, Rajgarh, Vidisha, Morena, Bhind (SC), Gwalior, Sagar, and Betul (ST).
According to MP Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan, polling is being conducted peacefully across the state. Raja, Maharaja, and the Mama of Indian politics are among the 127 candidates in the fray for this high-profile third phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Congress Rajya Sabha member and former CM Digvijaya Singh, popularly known as Raja, is contesting from his traditional Rajgarh seat. He is pitted against two-time sitting BJP MP Rodmal Nagar.
Former BJP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, fondly called Mama, is contesting from the Vidisha seat. Congress candidate Pratap Bhanu Sharma is the main challenger for the seat.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, considered Maharaj by his supporters, is the BJP candidate from the Guna Lok Sabha constituency. The Congress has named Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav its candidate against Scindia.
Besides being the highly-anticipated and eagerly followed, the third phase is the biggest too in Madhya Pradesh, as nine seats are polling.
Of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP, six had gone to polls in the first phase on 19 April, six in the second phase on 26 April, and polling for nine seats is underway in the third phase today while the remaining eight seats will go to polls on 13 May, which would be the fourth phase of general elections and the last for Madhya Pradesh.
CEO Anupam Rajan informed that 127 candidates are contesting across the nine Lok Sabha seats in the third phase. The highest number of 22 candidates is in Bhopal while Bhind has the least number of candidates at seven.
The CEO said 20,456 polling booths have been set up in the nine constituencies. Of these, 2,043 booths are officiated by women and 75 by specially-abled persons.