Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls: 46.23 per cent voter turnout till 2pm

BHOPAL: An average polling of 43.26 per cent was recorded till 1400 hours in 230 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh where voting is underway amid complaints of EVM malfunction in a dozen seats and incidents of firing in violence-prone Bhind district.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer for Madhya Pradesh, V L Kantha Rao told reporters that the average for male voters was 43.92 per cent while that for female voters was 42.73 per cent.

Rao said that incidents of firing in the air had been reported from three or four places from Lahar assembly seat in Bhind. However, none were hurt.

He said that a maximum of 47 per cent of female voters had cast their votes in Susner constituency (Shajapur) while 55 per cent males had exercised their franchise in Narsinghgarh seat (Rajgarh).

There were complaints of malfunctioning of EVms from polling booths in 12 constituencies including Chhindwara, Shahdol, Rewa, Indore, Badwani and Panna. But all of them were rectified within 30 minutes, Rao said.

In Sirmour constituency of Rewa district, votes of 94 people could not be recorded due to fault of the returning officer.

Rao said that information about this had been given to the Election Commission which will decide on what has to be done in the matter.

Earlier during the day, polling was boycotted by people at some stations in nine Assembly constituencies including Hoshangabad, Ratlam, Gwalior, Raisen and Umaria.

Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, brother Laxman and his wife cast his vote from Raghogarh constituency in Guna district.

Digvijay's son Jaiwardhan Singh is contesting polls for the first time as a Congress candidate from this seat.

A total of 2,583 candidates are trying their luck in the elections being held in 53,896 polling booths in 51 districts.

The BJP government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan is fighting for an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the state.