Madhya Pradesh Bypolls: 66.12% Voter Turnout Recorded in Nine Seats Till 6 PM

Polling began at 7 am across 20,456 polling stations, including 1,043 managed by women personnel and 75 by Divyang employees, an election official said.Betul seat recorded 69.68 per cent voting, Bhind 52.91 per cent, Bhopal 60.99 per cent, Guna 69.34 per cent, Gwalior 58.86 per cent, Morena 55.77 per cent, Rajgarh 72.99 per cent, Sagar 62.06 per cent and Vidisha 70.35 per cent, the official said.At 72.99 per cent, the highest polling was recorded in Rajgarh seat where Digvijay is locked in a straight contest against sitting BJP MP Rodmal Nagar.

A provisional voter turnout of 66.12 per cent was recorded till 6 pm on Tuesday in the third phase of polling for nine Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh with no untoward incident reported, a poll official said. A total of 127 candidates, including Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and two former chief ministers, Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP) and Digvijaya Singh, who belongs to Congress, were in the fray. ''A turnout of 66.12 per cent was recorded (from 7 am) till 6 pm. This figure will change after final compilation,'' Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan told reporters.

No major incident was reported from anywhere in the nine constituencies and the polling was peaceful, he said.

Notably, a turnout of 66.63% was recorded in these nine constituencies- Morena, Bhind (SC-reserved), Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal, Rajgarh and Betul (ST-reserved)- in the 2019 general elections and an overall turnout of 71.20% in Madhya Pradesh. Of the total 29 constituencies in the state, polling for 12 seats concluded in two phases on April 19 and 26. The remaining eight seats will go to polls in the fourth phase on May 13.

Scindia contested from home turf Guna, and Chouhan and Digvijaya Singh from Vidisha and Rajgarh constituencies, respectively. Chouhan, Digvijaya, and Madhya Pradesh BJP president V D Sharma were among the early voters.

Chouhan, his wife Sadhna Singh, and their two sons cast their votes at a polling booth in his native village, Jait, in Sehore district.

Digvijaya and Scindia exercised their franchise from Bhopal and Gwalior, respectively, as they are registered voters from these two cities and not in their respective constituencies. Polling began at 7 am across 20,456 polling stations, including 1,043 managed by women personnel and 75 by Divyang employees, an election official said.

Betul seat recorded 69.68 per cent voting, Bhind 52.91 per cent, Bhopal 60.99 per cent, Guna 69.34 per cent, Gwalior 58.86 per cent, Morena 55.77 per cent, Rajgarh 72.99 per cent, Sagar 62.06 per cent and Vidisha 70.35 per cent, the official said.

At 72.99 per cent, the highest polling was recorded in Rajgarh seat where Digvijay is locked in a straight contest against sitting BJP MP Rodmal Nagar. Bhind saw the lowest turnout at 52.91%.

Notably, to ensure the smooth conduct of elections, the administration made local candidates sit in the police control room in Morena in the Gwalior-Chambal region, considered a sensitive area, with their consent.

''Police made BJP candidate Shivmangal Singh Tomar, BSP's Ramesh Chandra Garg and Congress nominee Satyapal Sikarwar sit in the police control room,'' said Superintendent of Police Shailendra Singh Chouhan.

They came to the police control room and sat together, as had happened here in the past, he said.

The candidates left after the afternoon.

The nine constituencies which voted on Tuesday are spread across 19 districts. A total of 1.77 crore voters, including 92.68 lakh men, 84.83 lakh women, and 491 members of the third gender, were eligible to exercise their franchise. As many as 5.25 lakh voters are in the age group of 18-19 years.

Polling in Betul (ST) constituency was initially scheduled to be held in the second phase on April 26 but was deferred due to the death of a candidate.

At 22, Bhopal, where BJP's Alok Sharma was in the fray against Congress candidate Arun Shrivastava, had the highest number of contestants, and Bhind had the lowest at 7. The Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping for a clean sweep in MP. In 2019, the BJP failed to win the Chhindwara constituency, the only saving grace for the Congress which retained it with party veteran Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath emerging victorious. The campaigning was mainly based on the broad themes of ''Modi's guarantees'' versus Congress' call to save democracy and the Constitution.

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