Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2018: 74.61% turnout recorded; 1,145 EVMs replaced

Polling in three Maoist-dominated seats --- Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar --- of the 230 Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh began at 7 am and will end at 3 pm on Wednesday. Polling in the rest of the constituencies will start at 8 am and end at 5 pm. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, is seeking a fourth term in power. On the other hand, the Congress wants to make a comeback. As many as 5.04 crore voters will decide the fate of 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 165 seats and the Congress had won 58. Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party had won four and independent candidates had won three seats, respectively. State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao on Tuesday had said 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, have been deployed on poll duty across the state, where 65,341 polling stations have been set up. Rao said 78,870 EVMs will be used during the poll. The CEO said 17,000 of these polling booths have been declared ‘sensitive’ and additional vigil will be maintained there.

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