28 pc polling in 8 Lok Sabha seats of MP till noon
Bhopal: An average 28.01 per cent voter turnout was recorded till Sunday noon in eight Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh, an election official said.
Voting was underway since 7 am in a peaceful manner in Bhopal, Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha and Rajgarh constituencies in the third phase of elections in the state, state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao 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.
The voting figures till noon were: Morena 24.29 per cent, Bhind 21.99 per cent, Gwalior 22.96 per cent, Guna 34.11 per cent, Sagar 30.3 per cent, Vidisha 33.8 per cent, Bhopal 26.15 per cent and Rajgarh 32.39 per cent, he said.
Long queues were seen at several booths across the eight constituencies, he said.
In Bhopal, Congress veteran Digvijay Singh is locked in a battle with BJP candidate and 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur.
Congress general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia is seeking a re-election from Guna seat, where he cast his vote at a booth early in the morning.
His opponent is BJP's K P Yadav, who is contesting his first parliamentary election.
Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is the sitting MP from Gwalior, is contesting from Morena seat this time.
Altogether 138 candidates, including 14 women, are in the fray for these eight Lok Sabha 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, the official said.
Lok Sabha elections to 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 will be held on May 19 and counting of votes will take place on May 23.
