Madhya Pradesh: 127 candidates including 9 women in fray for third phase of LS polls in state

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh is set to go to the polls for nine parliamentary seats in the third phase of Lok Sabha election from 7 am onwards tomorrow and a total of 127 candidates, including nine women candidates are in fray in this phase, an official said.

Nine parliamentary seats in the state - Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal, Rajgarh and Betul- will go to the polls in the third phase of LS polls on May 7 from 7 am to 6pm.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral officer, Anupam Rajan said, "Nine parliamentary seats in the state will undergo polling tomorrow in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections. A total of 72 assembly constituencies and 19 districts are included in these nine Lok Sabha seats which will undergo polling. There are 127 candidates in fray which include 118 men and nine women."

Bhopal has the maximum number of candidates where a total of 22 candidates are in the fray while Bhind has the least number of candidates which is seven. The Polling time will be from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. Also, mock polls will be performed before polling in presence of polling agents, he added.

"There are a total of 20,456 polling stations for the third phase of LS polls in the state. Of these polling stations, 5,744 critical polling stations have been identified. Also, there are 2,043 pink polling booths, where all the polling personnel are women and similarly 75 booths are such that which will be managed completely by specially-abled agents in the third phase of polling in the state," Rajan said.

The total number of voters for the third phase of LS polls is 1,77,52,583 in which 92,68,987 are male, 84,83,105 female and 491 are third gender voters. There are 1,66,431 differently-abled voters, 88,106 voters are above 85 years and number of 100 years plus voters is 1804. The number of voters in the age group of 18-19 years is 5,25,179 and 36,778 are service voters, the officer further said.

He also said that all necessary arrangements were made at the polling booths like done before in the first two phases of LS polls. In view of heat, shades, water facilities and medical kits were also made available at all the polling stations in the state.

"Our efforts are such that voters can exercise their franchise comfortably. Also, extra staff have been deployed where the number of voters are maximum so that fast polling can be ensured and voters do not face long waits," he added

A total of 25,108 Balloting Unit (BU), 20,456 Control Unit (CU) and 20,456 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) are being used in the nine constituencies in the third phase of LS polls, he further said.

Lok Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh are being conducted in four phases. The first phase of polling was held on April 19 and the second phase was concluded on April 26.

Third phase of polling is scheduled for tomorrow May 7 and the fourth which is last phase of LS polls in the state will be held on May 13. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.

With 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, Madhya Pradesh ranks sixth among all states in terms of its representation in the Lower House. Of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved.