E-Paper
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Some villages boycott voting to protest lack of basic facilities in MP
A 68.11% turnout was recorded in the seven Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in Madhya Pradesh on Monday. With this, 13 of the state’s 29 Lok Sabha seats have polled, the remaining 16 will poll in the upcoming phases, on May 12 and 19, of the ongoing general election.
A 68.11% turnout was recorded in the seven Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in Madhya Pradesh on Monday. With this, 13 of the state’s 29 Lok Sabha seats have polled, the remaining 16 will poll in the upcoming phases, on May 12 and 19, of the ongoing general election.
All three seats in drought-prone Bundelkhand (except Sagar Lok Sabha seat) — Tikamgarh, Damoh and Khajuraho — witnessed key contests.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 26 of the state’s 29 seats in 2014, including these seven.
From Tikamgarh, Union minister of state for women and child welfare Virendra Kumar contested against Congress candidate Kiran Ahirwar. The Samajwadi Party fielded ex-MLA RD Prajapati, who defected to the party from the BJP. In Khajuraho, VD Sharma, a functionary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the state’s BJP general secretary, made his electoral debut. He took on Kavita Singh, the Congress candidate.
Residents of several villages boycotted the polling on Monday in Tikamgarh, Damoh, Hoshangabad and Satna in protest against a lack of basic facilities. In Damoh’s Bhajia, voters boycotted polling as their polling booth was set up 3 km away, officials said.
Madhya Pradesh’s chief electoral officer, V L Kantha Rao, said there was a poll boycott in certain villages but authorities persuaded the residents to vote.
A case was registered against former BJP minister, Vijay Shah, at Betul’s Harsud after Congress’s Basant Pawar accused him of threatening to kill him outside a polling booth. Shah has also registered a case, Rao said.
In Khajuraho, the Congress lodged a complaint with the EC alleging that the BJP candidate VD Sharma’s name appeared on voting lists at three places. Sharma could not be reached for comments.
Voting was delayed in Satna and Khajuraho for some time due to glitches in the Electronic Voting Machines. Rao said EVMs and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were replaced at 260 booths during a mock poll ahead of the polling.
Rajkumari Yadav, 102, voted in Tikamgarh, and Radharani, 92, Shribai, 90, and Jamuna Prasad, 91, in Damoh.
Crèches were set up at model polling stations for the first time in Madhya Pradesh.
