50.3 pc voter turnout till 3 pm in MP

Press Trust of India  |  Bhopal 

Around 50.3 per cent of 1.44 crore voters exercised their franchise till 3 pm on Sunday in eight seats of Madhya Pradesh, an said.

"During mock poll conducted before the actual voting began, 30 to 40 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were changed because of some technical problems," he said.

Till 3 pm, seat recorded the highest 59 per cent polling, followed by Guna-57.4 per cent, Vidisha-54.72 per cent, Bhopal-51.06 per cent, Sagar-50.28 per cent, 46.66 per cent, 44.12 per cent and Morena-40.56 per cent, he said.

Long queues were seen at several polling booths across the eight constituencies, he added.

In Bhopal, veteran Digvijay Singh is contesting against BJP candidate and 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Thakur.

Singh is a registered voter of his hometown Raghogarh in seat.

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

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

Former state Chouhan and his family members exercised their franchise at their native village Jait, which falls under the seat.

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

Total 18,141 polling booths have been set up where over 1.44 crore people, including 32,909 service voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise, he said.

Lok Sabha elections for 29 seats in the state are being held in four phases.

The first (in six seats) and second phases (seven seats) were held on April 29 and May 6.

Voting for the last phase in eight seats of the state will be held on May 19 and counting of votes will take place on May 23.

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

First Published: Sun, May 12 2019. 15:46 IST