Voter Turnout Exceeds 60% in 13 Lok Sabha Constituencies in Rajasthan

Over 60% voter turnout in Rajasthan's 2nd phase of Lok Sabha elections in 13 constituencies. Peaceful polling, except for some complaints in Barmer-Jaisalmer. Bagidora assembly by-election also held with 73.25% voting. Final turnout figures pending. Around 2.8 crore voters eligible to vote. Notable personalities like Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and former CMs cast their votes. A 108-year-old woman and three-generation families participated in the voting process. Some allegations of fake voting and a demand for boycott in Banswara.

Over 60 per cent turnout was recorded in polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats on Thursday in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan, according to the latest figures from the Election Commission.

Polling had taken place in the first phase on April 19 for the other 12 parliamentary constituencies in the state, which sends 25 representatives to Parliament.

The by-election for the Bagidora assembly constituency in Banswara district was also held simultaneously on Friday. By 5 pm, 73.25 per cent voting took place.

Barring a few confrontations and complaints of fake voting in Barmer-Jaisalmer, polling was peaceful, officials said.

According to official data, 60.61 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the 13 constituencies of Barmer-Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Chittorgarh, Banswara, Kota-Bundi, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.

Banswara-Dungarpur recorded 69.97 per cent votes, Barmer-Jaisalmer 70.12 and Ajmer 53.47 per cent.

Among other constituencies, polling was 55.41 per cent in Bhilwara, 63.48 in Chittorgarh, 58.19 in Jalore, 65.75 in Jhalawar-Baran, 60.82 in Jodhpur, 66.22 in Kota, 53.81 in Rajsamand, 52.97 in Tonk Sawai-Madhopur, 61.21 in Udaipur and 54.97 in Pali.

The final figures will be released later.

Around 2.8 crore voters were eligible to vote in the second phase of the polls.

Voting began at 7 am and ended at 6 pm.

Those who reached the polling booths and were standing in queue by 6 pm were allowed to vote.

Enthusiasm was seen among the people who lined up at the polling booths to cast votes.

However, in Banswara, no voter reached the Adibheet polling booth during the initial hours. The locals have certain demands regarding compensation against land acquired for a power plant and have declared to boycott the elections.

The officials said they are trying to convince the voters to exercise their franchise.

In the first two hours of the voting, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is contesting from Kota-Bundi, BJP state president C P Joshi contesting from Chittorgarh and Union minister and BJP candidate from Jodhpur Gajendra Singh Shekhawat cast their votes.

Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani cast his vote in Ajmer while former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Gehlot exercised their franchise in Jhalawar and Jodhpur respectively.

A 108-year-old woman, Bhuri Bai, cast her vote at the Gunjara polling booth in the Kota-Bundi constituency. She was brought to the polling booth in a wheelchair by her family members.

A man, his son and granddaughters, representing three generations, reached a polling station at Sankand in Jalore to cast votes. They also took pictures at the selfie point in the booth.

A groom, Radhe Suthar, cast his vote at Bhadsoda in Chittorgarh before going for his wedding procession. Suthar told reporters that it is important to exercise franchise in a democracy, so he spared time to cast a vote before his marriage function.

There were a few complaints during the polling. Jodhpur IG Vikas Kumar, who was at Barmer, said polling was affected for a few minutes after complaints of fake voting were received from some places outside the polling booths. However, the polling was by and large peaceful, he said.

Congress MLA from Barmer's Baytoo Harish Chaudhary alleged that the party's polling agent was thrown out of the polling station in Sheo and demanded from the authorities to stop the voting.

The IG directed the local police officials to look into the complaint.

Meanwhile, the Jaisalmer Police said the brother of Independent candidate Ravindra Singh Bhati was influencing voters in Jaisalmer and directed him to leave the district immediately as he was not the voter of that area.

In Tonk-Sawai Madhopur constituency, BJP candidate Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria alleged that fake voting occurred at a booth in Malarna Dungar.

Voting for 12 seats in the desert state was held in the first phase on April 19.

The Bagidora assembly seat in Banswara fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya switched over to the BJP. Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Banswara as a BJP candidate.

Rajasthan has a total of 25 Lok Sabha seats, out of which 12 went to polls in the first phase on April 19 and polling on the remaining 13 seats took place on Friday.

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