Low Voter Turnout in MP's Six Seats, Gender Gap Apparent

The voter turnout in the previous 2019 Lok Sabha elections was 67 per cent in these six seats, the states Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan said.Hoshangabad recorded the highest voting at 67.21 per cent, while Rewa stood at the bottom of the list with a turnout of 49.42 per cent, official numbers showed.Satna, Tikamgarh, Khajuraho and Damoh seats logged 61.93, 60.00, 56.96 and 56.48 per cent turnout, respectively.

The six Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh that went to polls on Friday in the second phase of general elections recorded a voter turnout of 58.59 per cent, according to data released by the Election Commission on Saturday. Of the 1.1 crore eligible voters in these seats, 61.61 per cent of men and 55.46 per cent of women electors exercised their franchise, officials said. "The voter turnout in the previous (2019) Lok Sabha elections was 67 per cent in these six seats," the state's Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan said.

Hoshangabad recorded the highest voting at 67.21 per cent, while Rewa stood at the bottom of the list with a turnout of 49.42 per cent, official numbers showed.

Satna, Tikamgarh, Khajuraho and Damoh seats logged 61.93, 60.00, 56.96 and 56.48 per cent turnout, respectively. In the 2019 general elections, Hoshangabad, Rewa, Satna, Tikamgarh, Khajuraho and Damoh had recorded 74.17, 60.33, 70.71, 66.57, 68.28 and 65.82 per cent voting, respectively, as per the EC figures.

Rising heat in these constituencies might have pulled down the turnout. Except for Khajuraho, which recorded 39 degrees Celsius on Friday, temperatures hovered over 40 degrees in the other five constituencies, they said. Hundreds of weddings were also held on Friday in these areas, said the officials, suggesting that several families might not have turned up at polling booths. A total of 58,32,333 men, 53,29,972 women and 155 from the third-gender category were eligible to cast their ballots in these six seats.

In the 2014 general elections, a voter turnout of 61.57 per cent was recorded in the entire state, which increased by 10 per cent to 71.16 per cent in 2019.

Union minister Virendra Kumar is seeking a fourth straight term from Tikamgarh, a reserved seat for Scheduled Caste. He took on Congress candidate Pankaj Ahirwar.

State BJP chief and incumbent MP V D Sharma is seeking a second term from the Khajuraho, where the opposition INDIA bloc supported ex-IAS officer R B Prajapati of All India Forward Bloc against Sharma after Samajwadi Party candidate Meera Yadav's nomination was rejected.

The other Lok Sabha seats in the state will go to polls in the third and fourth phases on May 7 and 13. Votes will be counted on June 4.

In 2019, the BJP won in 28 of the 29 Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, while the Congress could only bag the Chhindwara seat.

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