Madhya Pradesh votes in Phase 6 of LS polls: State records 42.25% voter turnout till 2 pm; Guna sees highest voting percentage

Bhopal: An average of 42.25 percent voter turnout was recorded till 2 pm in eight Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh, an official said. Voting for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state has been underway since 7 am and long queues were seen at several booths. “During mock poll conducted before the actual voting began, 30 to 40 electronic voting machines (EVMs) were changed because of some technical problems,” state Chief Electoral Officer VL Kantha Rao said. [caption id=“attachment_6618251” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Voters during the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election. PTI[/caption] The voting figures till 2 pm were: Morena 38.43 percent, Bhind 35.38 percent, Gwalior 38.70 percent, Guna 49.03 percent, Sagar 45.27 percent, Vidisha 46.93 per cent, Bhopal 40.69 percent and Rajgarh 45.30 percent, he added. In Bhopal, Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh is locked in a battle with BJP candidate and 2008 Malegaon blast accused Pragya Thakur. Singh is a registered voter of his hometown Raghogarh in Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat. Thakur exercised her franchise in the morning at a polling booth in Rivera Town area in the state capital. 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. Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who is the MP from Gwalior, is contesting from Morena seat this time. Altogether 138 candidates are in the fray for these eight 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, he said. Lok Sabha elections for 29 seats in the state are being held in four phases. The first (in six seats) and second phases (seven seats) were held on 29 April and 6 May. Voting for the last phase in eight seats will be held on 19 May. Follow live updates for the voter turnout here