Madhya Pradesh, which went to polls on Friday across 230 seats, witnessed its highest-ever voter turnout recorded at 76.22 per cent. It surpassed the 75.63 per cent voter turnout of the 2018 assembly polls by 0.59 per cent.
The voter turnout this time is the highest in the history of Madhya Pradesh since it was founded in 1956 and has been on the rise since 2003. It was 67.25 per cent in 2003, 69.78 per cent in 2008, 72.13 per cent in 2013 and 75.63 per cent in 2018.
In this election, Seoni district in east Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest voter turnout of 85.68 per cent, while the tribal-dominated Alirajpur in the western region saw the lowest voter turnout of 60.10 per cent, according to poll officials.
The second highest voter turnout of 85.23 per cent was recorded in the Naxalites-hit Balaghat district in the western region sharing a border with Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, indicating that ballots prevailed over bullets as Maoists discouraged people from voting and put roadblocks in the election process.
The Friday election had in fray 2,533 candidates, including Chief Minister and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his predecessor and state Congress chief Kamal Nath, whose fate has now been sealed in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). A total of 64,626 polling stations were set up in the state, which also witnessed sporadic violence across the state.
Along with Madhya Pradesh, the second and last phase of polling across 70 Assembly constituencies of Chhattisgarh also took place yesterday.
The counting of votes will now be on December 3, along with four other states – Telangana, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh.