BHOPAL:Three prominent electoral districts, where high profile political figures were competing, recorded the highest voter turnout, with approximately 66% of the electorate casting their votes across nine constituencies in Madhya Pradesh during the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday.
After the total voter turnout stayed much below the 2019 polls figures in the first two phases, in a pleasant change, the voting percentage in the third phase (till the time of filling this news report) stood at around 66%. It was close to the 66.63% voter turnout reported on the same nine seats in the 2019 elections.
Importantly in the first two phases, the voter turnout was eight percent and nine percent less compared to the corresponding figures of the 2019 elections.
The Rajgarh seat of central MP from where former CM Digvijaya Singh was contesting as Congress candidate after 33 years reported maximum 75%, followed by 74% in Vidisha where another ex-MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the BJP candidate.
In Guna, the seat of Gwalior-Chambal region, where union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was the BJP candidate, reported 72% voting, while Betul-ST seat reported 73% polling.
The two major cities, including state capital Bhopal and Gwalior reported 64% and 62% polling respectively, while the lowest 55% polling was reported in the Bhind-SC seat and 58% in Morena which have historically been infamous for lower voter turnout.
While no major incident was reported from anywhere across the 19 districts, where the polls happened on the nine seats, two groups clashed in Bhind district, where police used mild force later to disperse them.
There was an early morning incident of a youth on way for voting, getting injured after being shot at in Bhind district, but later it turned out to be the fallout of a non-poll related dispute between two families belonging to the same Khatik (SC) caste.
Also, in pursuance of a past practice dating back to 1996 elections, all three main candidates, including the BJP, Congress and BSP nominees stood at the district police lines for ensuring free and fair polls in the highly sensitive Morena seat.