"Voting no less than a festival," says Union Minister Virendra Kumar amid MP polls; casts vote in Tikamgarh

Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Virendra Kumar on Friday said that the day of voting is no less than a festival and cast his vote at a polling booth in Tikamgarh district while polling is underway for the 230-member Assembly in Madhya Pradesh.

Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Virendra Kumar on Friday said that the day of voting is no less than a festival and cast his vote at a polling booth in Tikamgarh district while polling is underway for the 230-member Assembly in Madhya Pradesh. The Union Minister cast his vote at polling booth number 74 in Tikamgarh district and told ANI, "In a democracy, the voting day is no less than a festival. On this day, every voter should exercise their right."

Tikamgarh is one of the 230 Legislative Assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh. In 2018, Rakesh Giri of the Bharatiya Janata Party won the seat by defeating Yadvendra Singh "jaggu Bhaiya" of the Indian National Congress with a margin of 4175 votes. 2023 election will be a repeat of the same contest with Rakesh Giri up against Congress' Yadvendra Singh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate Virendra Kumar defeated Congress opponent Ahirwar Kiran from the Lok Sabha (MP) seat.

Madhya Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 11.19 per cent till 9.30 am on Friday, according to data shared by the Election Commission. Voting for 230 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh began at 7 am on Friday. The voters can cast their ballots until 6 pm, except in the Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of Balaghat district and some booths in Mandla and Dindori districts, where voting will be held until 3 pm.

Webcasting has also been made available at about 42,000 polling stations. Nearly 700 companies of the central forces and two lakh police personnel of the state have been deployed for security during the poll. The election will decide the electoral fate of over 2,500 candidates. Nearly 5.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. It includes 2.87 crore male and 2.71 crore women voters.

There are over 5,000 booths run by women and 183 polling stations run by the disabled, officials said. The counting of votes for the five states including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram will be done on December 3. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)