New Delhi: The voter turnout in Madhya Pradesh was 74.61% till 6 pm on Wednesday, while it was 75% for Mizoram till 5 pm- the two high-stake states where polling is underway .
Polling in 227 seats in Madhya Pradesh and 40 seats in Mizoram is being conducted from 8 am to 5 pm in a single phase.
Polling in three-constituencies in MP- Lanji, Paraswada and Baihar in Maoist-hit Balaghat district started at 7 am and will culminate at 3 pm.
In Madhya Pradesh, which is currently governed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, voting will take place at 65,341 polling booths, which have been set up for the single-phase elections to 230 seats of the state Assembly. As many as 2,000 booths are entirely being operated by women staff. On the other hand, special arrangements have been made for visually impaired persons to help them cast their votes.
According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Madhya Pradesh, VL Kantha Rao, 12,000 central government employees will be working as micro-observers at different places. A total of 5,04,95,251 voters will cast their votes to decide the fortune of as many as 2, 907 candidates, who are in the fray.
Both Congress and MNF are contesting all 40 constituencies this time, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting in 39 seats.
The BJP had won 166 seats in 2013 Assembly polls, while the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had bagged 58 and four seats respectively.
Meanwhile, in Mizoram, the Congress party, which has been in power in Mizoram since 2008, is eyeing a third consecutive term in the state. In the previous election in 2013, Congress had fielded 40 candidates while it won 34 seats, whereas Mizo National Front (MNF) secured only five seats after contesting 31 seats. Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) had contested on eight seats but it managed to bag only one.
In Rajasthan polling will take place on December 11th and the result of the polls in five states will be declared on December 11.