Bhopal: Amid moments of overcast weather, the sun, for the major part of the day on Sunday shone brightly, but that did not deter voters of the eight Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh to exercise their franchise.
At the end of the stipulated time of polling at 6pm, the state recorded close to 62% voting. However, as voters continued to turn up in overwhelming numbers at polling stations, it increased to 64.94%.
The above-par polling was witnessed at almost all the seats that saw election on Sunday.
Bhopal, which drew a lot of attention after the BJP fielded Malegaon blasts accused Pragya Singh Thakur against Congress veteran and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, also saw an upward swing in voting.
As against 57.79% polling in 2014, the seat registered 65.69% voting at the end of evening on Sunday.
Singh, who had almost single-handedly carried out his campaign, remained active since morning and was even present at one of the polling stations in the old part of the city after 6pm, meeting voters and clicking selfies.
However, he failed to exercise his own franchise in his hometown Rajgarh that also went to polls on Sunday.
Seemingly exhausted after a gruelling campaign, Singh, while speaking to News18, offered a faint smile and exuded confidence of a win.
When asked to comment on his opponent, he offered his tailor-made reply that he would speak only after May 23 (when the results are out).
Voting percentage across all the Assembly seats under the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency was higher than what was witnessed during the state election in December.
Except for some tense moments in Bhind, Morena and Bhopal, election was by and large peaceful, said Chief Electoral Officer MP VL Kantha Rao.
There were some reports of EVM snags, crowd gathering at polling booths and agents suspecting bogus voting, the officer said.
Three villages in Bhind — Nadedi, Datawal and Surajpur — and Semlikakod in Rajgarh district saw voters boycotting the election in the morning, but voting started after officers intervened, said Rao.
On reports of presiding officers turning away voters who were not carrying their voter cards, Rao said the Election Commission had allowed 12 documents which could be used for voting and promised to look into specific complaints.
Besides Bhopal, Guna (69.88%), Rajgarh (74%), Bhind (54.57%), Morena (60.67%), Sagar (65.69%) and Vidisha (70.80%) seats also went to poll in the third phase in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
Most of these seats recorded massive surge in polling as compared to 2014.
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