Counting of votes begins for 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh

Counting of votes began Tuesday morning for the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling BJP is aiming for a clean sweep, after its emphatic victory in the state assembly polls.The counting of votes began at 8 am, an election official said.Lok Sabha polls were held in four phases in the state on April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13.

Counting of votes began Tuesday morning for the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling BJP is aiming for a clean sweep, after its emphatic victory in the state assembly polls.

The counting of votes began at 8 am, an election official said.

Lok Sabha polls were held in four phases in the state on April 19, April 26, May 7 and May 13. The voter turnout was 66.87 per cent.

As many as 22,595 officials and employees are engaged in the vote counting exercise, an official said. A total of 3,883 tables have been set for the counting of EVM votes, while 242 tables are in place to count postal ballots.

The counting exercise began with the counting of postal ballots.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 28 of the 29 seats, with the exception of Chhindwara, a stronghold of Congress veteran Kamal Nath.

Prominent candidates in the fray this time included Congress leader and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, state BJP chief V D Sharma from Khajuraho, former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam-Jhabua and Kamal Nath's son and sitting MP Nakul Nath from Chhindwara.

Altogether 18 companies of central forces, 45 companies of Special Armed Forces (SAF) and 10,000 personnel of district security forces have been deployed for the vote counting exercise.

The BJP's poll campaign was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with senior leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and former chief minister Shivraj Singh.

The BJP campaign dwelt on the Congress' "appeasement politics", with the ruling party accusing it of planning to give quotas meant for SCs, STs and OBCs to the Muslim community.

The Congress' campaign, led by Rahul Gandhi, party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, attacked the BJP for indulging in crony capitalism and accused it of wanting to change the Constitution to end reservations for deprived classes.

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