Madhya Pradesh polls: 43% voting till 2pm, reports of firing at several booths

GWALIOR BHOPAL: 43 % of the nearly 4.66 crore electors had voted till 2pm in the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh on Monday.

There were reports of firing at more than a dozen polling booths in Chambal region, boycott at 11 booths in seven districts for bad roads, two cases of attempt to loot Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and EVM malfunctions at 23 poll booths of eight districts.

Sumawali constituency in Morena and Lahar in Bhind have reported maximum violence with use of firearms in the state.

"So far no casualties have been reported. We have deployed additional force to tackle the situation," Sarabjeet Singh, ADG (Intelligence) told TOI.

Polling was boycotted at 11 booths of the state including Hosangabad, Ratlam, Gwalior, Raisen (4), Morena, Umeria, Betul and Itarsi, for road and other issues.

"Around 43.66 % polling (including 43.9 % male/42.73 % female) was recorded in 230 constituencies of 51 districts till 12 noon," chief electoral officer Jaideep Govind said.

Nearly two dozen people were injured in the poll related violence in Bhind and Morena districts within two hours after the polling started.

Nine people including a woman were injured in firing at Sumawali constituency of Morena, where one of them is said to be in a critical condition.

Those injured in Sumawali were identified as Aanekram, Jasram, Deewan, Meera, Puna, Ram Barosi Kushwah, Ashok Parmar, Ajay Parmar and Saurabh Singh Sikarwar - aged 20 t0 30 years.

Ram Barosi Kushwah, a resident of Jiju ka Pura, who sustained a gun shot injury, is said to be in a critical condition. He has been referred to Gwalior. The polling officers stopped the election proceedings at locked themselves inside the poll booth at Aarhela village in Sumawali during firing.

Sleuths of Border Security Force (BSF) had to fire shots in air to take situation under control a violent mob at another poll booth in Sumawali. Three others were injured in firing at Naka ka Pura polling booth at Morena constituency - Balkrishna Patel, 54, Suresh Singh 46, Haidel Singh, 23.

Four suspected Congress workers were arrested in Morena district after they fired shots in air and tried to loot the EVM.

Similarly, Surendra Singh, 32, a BSP worker was injured in the firing that took place at Siyawali poll booth in Ater constituency. He was referred to Gwalior for further treatment. Firing also took place at Khurd poll booth in the same constituency.

Polling process got delayed at several polling stations across the state with electronic voting machines (EVMs) developing technical glitches. Voting was stopped at a poll booth in Bhopal after the Congress candidate Aarif Masood claimed that while pressing the button for Congress on EVM was adding votes to BJP. The election officers admitted that there was a technical snag.

Also a polling officer died of cardiac arrest in Katni district.