Bhopal records 60% voter turnout

Anup Dutta

Bhopal, May 12

Voter turnout of 60.95 per cent was recorded in eight Lok Sabha constituencies of Madhya Pradesh till 5 pm today.

Rajgarh recorded the highest polling at 68.15 per cent, followed by Vidisha 65.31 per cent, Guna 64.8 per cent, Bhopal 60.95 per cent, Sagar 60.42 per cent, Gwalior 56.03 per cent, Morena 54.36 per cent and Bhind 50.82 per cent, an official said.

Long queues were witnessed at several polling booths throughout the day, Chief Electoral Officer VL Kantha Rao said.

In Bhopal, Congress veteran Digvijay Singh is locked in a battle with BJP candidate and 2008 Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur.

Digvijay Singh could not cast his vote as he is a registered voter of his hometown Raghogarh in Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat. He was spotted at Jehangirabad area in the morning, visiting party poll agents deployed outside the polling booth in the constituency.

Thakur exercised her franchise in the morning at a polling booth in Rivera Town area in the state capital.

Both Singh (72) and Pragya (49) are banking on 19.5 lakh voters.

Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia, who is seeking re-election from the Guna seat, cast his vote at a booth early in the morning in Gwalior, a party spokesman said.

Scindia is locked in a battle with BJP’s KP Yadav, who is contesting his first Lok Sabha election.

Former state CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his family members exercised their franchise at their native village Jait, which falls under the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat.

Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is the sitting MP from Gwalior, is in the fray from the Morena seat this time.

Altogether 138 candidates are in the fray for the eight Lok Sabha seats, of which seven were won by the BJP in 2014.

There were 30 nominees in Bhopal, 25 in Morena, 18 each in Bhind and Gwalior, 13 each in Guna and Vidisha, 11 in Rajgarh and 10 in Sagar, Rao said.

“A total of 18,141 polling booths were set up where over 1.44 crore people, including 32,909 service voters, were eligible to exercise their franchise,” he said.

Over 45,000 security personnel were deployed for the smooth conduct of the polls.

In 2014, the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat recorded 57.79 per cent turnout. The BJP had won the seat by a margin of over 3.7 lakh votes.

Of the eight Assembly segments of the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat, the BJP had won both Sehore and Berasia segments in the year-end Assembly elections in the state. The Congress had won three of the eight Assembly segments. (With inputs from PTI)