Bhopal, May 19 (UNI) As much as 75.51per cent exercise of franchise was recorded on Sunday in Indore, Dewas, Ujjain, Dhar, Khandwa, Khargone, Mandsaur and tribal-dominated Ratlam parliamentary constituencies of Madhya Pradesh’s Malwa and Nimar regions as the curtain descended on the state’s fourth and final phase of these Lok Sabha polls.
Area-wise percentages are Indore 69.56, Dewas 79.46, Ujjain 74.93, Dhar 74.74, Khandwa 76.80, Khargone 77.51, Mandsaur 77.74 and Ratlam 75.19. Even the differently-able and the elderly participated enthusiastically in the democratic process.
Outgoing Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan; Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya; the BJP’s Indore candidate Shankar Lalwani; state ministers Jitu Patwari and Tulsiram Silawat; the Congress’ state Media In-charge Shobha Ojha and Media Coordinator Narendra Saluja cast their votes in Indore. The Congress’ Khandwa nominee, erstwhile central minister, former Congress state president and ex-MP Arun Yadav and his younger sibling state Minister Sachin Yadav voted in Khargone District’s Borawa village. BJP workers and Congress counterparts rained lathis on one another outside Jhabua District’s Umarkot Polling Centre but intervention by law enforcement authorities restored normalcy.
“A total 94 ballot units, 91 control units and 260 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines were replaced during mock polls. Officials interacted with villagers at one place in Agar Malwa District and five in Mandsaur after boycott reports were received. An employee died following cardiac arrest in Dhar this morning and a presiding officer perished last night in Shajapur,” state Chief Electoral Officer VL Kantha Rao told the press.
Ill health claimed a BJP polling agent in Jhabua District.
Voting timings were 0700-1800 hrs. A total 82 aspirants were in the arena and the 1,49,13,890-strong electorate included more than 72.86 lakh women. The break-up of candidates was Indore 20, Dewas six, Ujjain nine, Dhar seven, Khandwa 11, Khargone seven, Mandsaur 13 and Ratlam nine. Polling centres numbered 18,411.
The fortunes of several stalwarts of the BJP and the Congress were sealed in electronic voting machines. In Khandwa, the BJP’s erstwhile state president and ‘defending’ MP Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan was on collision course with his Congress parallel Yadav who was vanquished in this very area in 2014. Mandsaur had youthful former MP Meenakshi Natrajan (Cong) contesting against MP Sudhir Gupta (BJP); Ratlam saw its MP and ex-Union minister Kantilal Bhuria (Cong) locked in combat against Mr Guman Singh Damor (BJP). Saffron citadel Indore was the cynosure of all eyes as eight-time MP Mahajan (BJP) represented it without interval since 1989 but did not contest this time and the saffron camp reposed faith in Mr Lalwani who was in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with Mr Pankaj Sanghvi (Cong). In nearby Dhar, erstwhile MP Chhatar Singh (BJP) tried his luck against Mr Dinesh Girwal (Cong). In Dewas, former judge Mahendra Solanki (BJP) fought folk artiste Padma Shri Prahlad Singh Tipaniya (Cong); in adjoining Ujjain ex-legislator Anil Firojiya (BJP) was up against Mr B Malviya (Cong) and in Khargone Mr Gajendra Patel (BJP) locked horns with Dr Govind Mujalda (Cong).
About 81,000 officials were on duty; 83 companies of central force and 49 of the State Armed Force were deployed. A total of 56,092 police personnel were in action along with the Home Guard and special police officers. As many as 3,636 critical centres were identified and more than 3,000 booths monitored through webcasting / closed-circuit television. Global Positioning systems were installed in vehicles of all sector officers and polling parties.
Dewas and Ujjain are reserved for Scheduled Castes; Ratlam, Dhar and Khargone for Scheduled Tribes. The state has 29 parliamentary constituencies – six completed polling on April 29, seven on May 6 and eight on May 12.
UNI Team-AC