Bhopal, May 7 (UNI) Over 62 percent of the voters exercised their democratic rights across nine parliamentary constituencies of Madhya Pradesh which went to the hustings on Tuesday.
According to the Election Commission officials, voting was peaceful for the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls held during the day in the state.
Around 62.28 percent of the 1.77 crore eligible voters exercised their franchise till the end of the scheduled time of polling, the officials said.
The final voting figure could surpass the 65 percent mark, as many people were waiting in queues outside the booths as the polling time officially came to a close.
Among the notable candidates are Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia (BJP) and former Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP), and Digvijay Singh (Congress).
The total number of voters for this phase is 1,77,52,583, including 92,68,987 men, 84,83,105 women, and 491 from other categories.
A total of 20,456 polling stations were set up, including 101 auxiliary polling stations, with 5,744 stations designated as critical.
The focus of this phase primarily revolves around Guna, Vidisha, and Rajgarh constituencies, where prominent leaders from the BJP and Congress are contesting.
In Guna, the main contest is between BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress’ Yadavendra Singh, while in Vidisha, Congress poses a challenge to Shivraj Singh Chouhan with Pratapbhanu Sharma, and in Rajgarh, BJP’s Rodmal Nagar faces off against the incumbent MP Digvijay Singh.
A total of 127 candidates are in the fray across the nine constituencies, with Bhopal having the highest number of candidates at 22 and Bhind the lowest with seven contenders.
Madhya Pradesh is undergoing polling in four phases, with the remaining eight constituencies set to vote in the fourth phase on May 13.