Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 18 : A total of 88 candidates, including seven women candidates, are in the fray for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections to be held on Friday in Madhya Pradesh, an official said on Thursday.
Six parliamentary seats in the state - Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat and Chhindwara - will go to the polls in the first phase of polling on April 19.
Ahead of polling, Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral officer, Anupam Rajan addressed a press conference in the state capital Bhopal and said that polling would begin from 7 am and would continue till 6pm.
"Six parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh will undergo polling tomorrow in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections. A total of 47 assembly constituencies and 13 districts are included in these six Lok Sabha seats. Of these 13 districts, 11 are completely included and some parts of two Katni and Narsinghpur districts are included," Rajan said.
"There are a total of 88 candidates contesting elections in six parliamentary seats tomorrow which includes 81 men and seven women. Jabalpur has the maximum number of candidates where a total of 19 candidates are in the fray while Shahdol has the least number of candidates which is ten. Polling time will be from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. Besides, voting in the three assembly constituencies of Balaghat namely Lanji, Baihar, and Paraswada, which are considered Naxal affected areas, will be done from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm," he adds.
The official further says that there are a total of 13,588 polling stations for the first phase of LS polls in the state and the polling teams have left for all the polling stations in the state. Of these polling stations, 2651 sensitive polling stations have been identified.
"The total number of voters for the first phase of LS polls is 1,13,09,636 in which 57,20,780 are male and 55,88,669 female. The number of third gender voters is 187. There are 1,42,010 differently-abled voters, 46,463 voters are above 85 years and number of 100 years plus voters is 771. The number of voters in the age group of 18-19 years is 3,44,244 and 10,522 are service voters," Rajan said.
He further added that all arrangements were made at the polling booths and in view of heat shades, water facilities and medical kits were also made available. Apart from this, there were 1,118 pink polling booths, where all the polling personnel are women, in the first phase of polling in the state.
Meanwhile, giving information about home voting, Rajan said, "In home voting facilities for the 85 years plus voters and people having disability over 40 %, in the first phase of LS polls, 5466 voters of 85 years plus and 2881 disabled voters exercised their franchise. Apart from this, 536 people of essential services, including journalists, cast their vote in the first phase."
Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh will be conducted in four phases. Polling will also be held in the state on April 26, May 7 and May 13. The votes will be counted on June 4.
Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of parliamentary representation. Out of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved.