Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended his greetings to
first-time voters in Madhya Pradesh where polling is underway for the
230-member Assembly on Friday.
He urged voters to turn out in numbers to exercise
their right of franchise in the second phase of polling for 70 seats in the
90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly.
Polling for the second phase in Chhattisgarh began at
8 pm and will continue till 3 pm while voting in nine polling stations of
Bindranavagarh Assembly constituency will be held from 7 am to 3 pm.
For Chhattisgarh, over 18,800 polling stations have
been set up for the second phase of polling. A total of 958 candidates are in
the fray across the 70 seats.
While polling is being held in a single phase in
Madhya Pradesh, voting for the first phase in Chhattisgarh for 20 seats was
held on November 7.
Taking to his official handle on X, PM Modi posted, “I
am confident that voters from every region of the state (Madhya Pradesh) will
vote enthusiastically to mark this great festival of democracy. My special
greetings to all the youth of the state who are voting for the first time in
this election,” PM Modi posted on X in Hindi.
“Today is the second and last round of voting for the
Chhattisgarh Assembly. I request all the voters to turn out in record numbers
and exercise their franchise. Each and every single vote of yours is essential
to upholding our democratic traditions and practices,” PM Modi added in his
post.
Meanwhile, voting for all 230 Assembly seats in Madhya
Pradesh began at 7 am on Friday. The voters can exercise their franchise till 6
pm, with the exception of Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of
Balaghat district and some booths in Mandla and Dindori districts, where
polling will be held till 3 pm.
The BJP is seeking to retain power in the state where
it has ruled for almost 18 of the past 20 years and Congress is keen to oust
the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government.
Webcasting has been made available at about 42,000
polling stations. Nearly 700 companies of the central forces and two lakh
police personnel of the state have been deployed for security during the poll.
The election will decide the electoral fate of over
2,500 candidates.
Nearly 5.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise
their franchise. It includes 2.87 crore male and 2.71 crore women voters.
There are over 5,000 booths run by women and 183
polling stations run by the disabled, officials said.
The polls, coming nearly six months ahead of the Lok
Sabha polls, are crucial for both the BJP and Congress for various reasons. The
counting of votes for the five States, also including Rajasthan, Telangana and
Mizoram, will be done on December 3.
ANI
