BHOPAL/RAIPUR, Nov 17:
A turnout of at least 73 per cent was officially recorded during largely-peaceful voting today in the heartland State of Madhya Pradesh where single-phase exercise of franchise had commenced at 7 am amid tight security arrangements across all 230 Assembly constituencies vis-vis formation of the state’s 16th Vidhan Sabha.
The actual percentage will become clear once final figures are received as queues were observed on numerous polling centres’ premises even subsequent to expiration of the 6 pm deadline.
With the exception of a few stray incidents, polling was smooth. The process concluded at 3 pm at certain centres in Leftwing extremism-affected Balaghat, Dindori and Mandla districts.
The pages of the state’s electoral history reveal that 75.63 percent of the electorate participated in 2018 and 72.69 percent in 2013. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his family voted at their native village Jait in Sehore district. Union Civil Aviation and Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia did likewise in Gwalior; Home Minister Narottam Mishra cast his vote in Datia district, erstwhile CM Kamal Nath in Chhindwara and BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya in Indore.
An electorate exceeding 5.60 crore including more than 2.71 crore women and 1,292 of the third gender were eligible to participate in the democratic exercise at 64,626 polling centres including 17,032 critical ones to decide the fortunes of 2,533 nominees including 252 females and one member of the third gender.
Among the prominent contestants are Chief Minister Chouhan (Budhni), Congress state head Kamal Nath (Chhindwara), Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar (Dimani), Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti and Food-Processing Industries Prahalad Singh Patel (Narsinghpur), Union MoS for Steel and Rural Development Faggansingh Kulaste (Niwas) and Mr Vijayvargiya (Indore-1).
Counting is slated for December 3.
Meanwhile, voter turnout of 68.15 per cent (provisional) was recorded in the second phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections for 70 constituencies on Friday, where voting was held under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel, officials said.
Polling in 70 constituencies began at 8 am and concluded at 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Naxal-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district, where voting was held from 7 am till 3 pm for security reasons, a poll official said. “An average voter turnout of 68.15 per cent was recorded in 70 seats till 5 pm.
However, this figure may go up as the final data from several booths is yet to be received,” the official said. The second phase of polls will decide the electoral fate of political heavyweights like Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his deputy T S Singh Deo, eight state ministers and four members of Parliament. In the 2018 assembly polls, a voter turnout of 76.62 per cent was recorded on 72 seats in the second phase. This time, two of these constituencies were covered in the first phase of polling held on November 7. The political fate of a total of 958 candidates – 827 men, 130 women and one transgender person – contesting 70 seats spread across 22 districts, was locked in EVMs. As many as 1,63,14,479 voters – 81,41,624 men , 81,72,171 women and 684 of third gender – were eligible to exercise their franchise at 18,833 polling booths. While a woman died of unknown reason when she was standing in a queue to cast her vote at a polling booth in Kasdol assembly constituency of Balodabazar-Bhatapara district, a man was killed in an elephant attack when he was heading towards a polling booth to exercise his franchise in Korea district. Returning Officer of Kasdol segment Bhupendra Agrawal said the woman, identified as Sahodara Bai Nishad (58), fainted when she was standing in the queue waiting for her chance to vote at the polling station no. 76 in Malda village panchayat.
She was shifted to a community health centre in Kasdol by her family members with the support of polling personnel, where doctors declared her dead, he added. In another incident, the man, identified as Umendra Singh (25) was trampled to death by an elephant near Mangora village under Korea forest division, a forest official said. As per preliminary information, Singh was heading to the polling station to cast his vote and stopped on seeing a group of people who were on the way to watch the pachyderm roaming the area, he said. The elephant suddenly charged towards the crowd. Singh failed to escape and got trampled to death, he said. CM Baghel cast his vote in Kuruddih village in his constituency Patan Durg district, while Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan and his wife cast their votes in Civil Lines Raipur. (Agencies)
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