Aizawl, November 25: Around 26 per cent of polling has been recorded till noon in the 230 Assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh where elections are being held on Monday.
Polling was by and large peaceful barring a few stray incidents at some places, state Chief Electoral Officer Jaideep Govind said.
Firing was reported between two groups from Lahar constituency in Bhind district, an EVM was broken by people in Bhind constituency, while an EVM was looted in Dhasdua village in Morena district, Govind said, adding that law and order situation was under control across the state.
Polling was boycotted by people at some stations in nine Assembly constituencies including Hoshangabad, Ratlam, Gwalior, Raisen and Umaria, he said.
There were reports that some EVMs were not functioning properly at polling stations in 15 constituencies including Chhindwara, Shahdo, Rewa, Indore, Badwani, Panna and Sidhi, he said, adding that the faulty EVMs have been replaced.
An assistant poll official in Katni district’s Vijayraghogarh seat, K B Shrivastava, died of a heart attack early today, sources said.
He suffered heart attack at around 5 am following which he was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed.
The district returning officer has replaced him with the reserve staff.
A total of 2,583 candidates are trying their luck in the polls 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.
Over 36% cast votes in Mizoram
Polling began for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly at 7 AM today with 36.63 per cent votes cast in the first four hours, state joint chief electoral officer H Lalengmawia said.
Brisk polling was reported from many polling stations in Aizawl where long queues were seen in front of the booths in Mission Veng and Thakthing areas even before the elections began.
Elderly men and women were brought to the polling stations by their family members to exercise franchise in the early hours.
Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla cast his vote with his wife Lal Riliani at Zarkawt—II polling station which is in the building of Government Combined Middle School at Babutlang area in Zarkawt locality.
The Chief Minister, belonging to Congress, and all his 11 ministers are among the 142 candidates in fray.
Speaking to reporters after exercising franchise at 9:45 am, Lal Thanhawla said he was confident of retaining power in the state.
“I have high hopes that we will retain power with a thumping majority by bagging the same number of seats (32) if not more,” he said.
The people want Congress to be in power for its developmental work and running a clean government, he said.
The atmosphere in front of the polling stations was low-key and less festive due to strict diktats of the Mizoram People’s Forum (MPF), the church sponsored election watchdog.
Ruling Congress and opposition Mizoram Democratic Alliance comprising MNF, Mizoram People’s Conference and Maraland Democratic Alliance are contesting all the 40 seats.
Former chief minister Zoramthanga, president of the MNF was in his constituency — East Tuipui, in Mizoram—Myanmar border Champhai district and could not be contacted.
Women outnumber men by a margin of 9,806 in the electorate of 6,908,60. While there are 3,50,333 women in the electorate, male voters number 3,40,527.
Security has been tightened all along the Manipur border as also along the unfenced 64-km border near the tri-junction of Mizoram, Tripura and Bangladesh in Mamit district.
There are 1,126 polling stations in the state, of which 94 have been identified as ‘critical’.
