Elections 2019: 49 per cent voting in Madhya Pradesh till 3 pm

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Bhopal: An average 49.02 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm across six Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh Monday, an official said. The polling began at 7 am."An average 49.02 per cent turnout was recorded till 3 pm," an election official said.

The voting figures till 3 pm were as follows: Sidhi- 34.95 per cent, Shahdol-51.91 per cent, Jabalpur-48.71 per cent, Mandla-51.34 per cent, Balaghat-54.48 per cent and Chhindwara- 54.04 per cent. In Chhindwara assembly by-poll, where Chief Minister Kamal Nath is in the fray, the voting percentage till 3 pm was 53.33 per cent. Barring the Naxal-affected Baiher, Lanjhi and Paraswada Assembly segments under Balaghat parliamentary seat, polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm everywhere. In Naxal-affected areas, polling will be held from 7 am to 4 pm.

Voting began on Monday for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states. About 12.79 crore people are eligible for voting in the fourth of the seven-phase elections. The Election Commission has set up 1.40 lakh polling booths/stations and has made elaborate security arrangements. Polling will be held in 17 seats in Maharashtra, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, five in Bihar, three in Jharkhand and a part of the Anantnag constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.

The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 56 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (six seats) and the Biju Janata Dal (six). The fate of 961 candidates, including Union ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S S Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided in this phase. Among other key contestants in the fray are Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI), Baijayant Panda (BJP), Urmila Matondkar (Congress), Dimple Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satabdi Roy (TMC) and Milind Deora (Congress).

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