Big jump in voter turnout, Rajgarh leads

Eight seats, 138 candidates, 14.4 million voters

Voter turnout recorded a jump of approximately 8.13% in the eight constituencies that went to polls on Sunday, with the highest turnout recorded in Rajgarh, at 74% (10 pm) according to the EC’s Voter Turnout app. In 2014, the turnout in Rajgarh was 64%; over-all, the turnout in the eight seats was 64.94% as against 56.81% in 2014. Guna, from where Congress’ Jyotiraditya Scindia sought a fifth term, saw a turnout of 69.88% (9.1% more than 2014), while Bhopal, which saw a keen contest between Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pragya Thakur and Congress veteran Digvijay Singh, recorded a turnout of 65.69% (a jump of 7.9% since 2014).

With this, polling in 21 of the state’s 29 seats have been completed. The remaining eight will go to polls in the last phase, on May 19.

On Sunday, 83 electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 102 voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced due to malfunctioning, said Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer VL Kantha Rao.

Clashes were reported between Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Congress workers at Bhind’s Jaitpura, Karthara and

Mehgaon.

A stone pelting incident was reported from Jaitpura, in which a home guard, Megh Singh, sustained injures.

Superintendent of police, Bhind Rudolf Alvares said, “An attempt to murder case has been registered in connection with attack on the homeguard against unidentified persons .” Some miscreants fired into air in Bhind, due to which polling was disrupted for an hour, Alvares said.

Former home minister Bhupendra Singh called for a bandh on Monday in Sagar to protest against incidents of violence.

At Khurai, two BJP workers Kamlesh Rai and Shrikant Kaushik accused a local Congress leader’s son and his friend for making an attempt on their lives.

Superintendent of police (Sagar) Amit Sanghi said an FIR has been lodged against two persons. “A report will follow,” he said.

In 2014 polls, BJP won all the seats except Guna.