74% voting 83 candidates’ fate sealed

 

 

 

fate of as many as 83 candidates in fray for Assembly elections from eight Assembly constituencies in the district was sealed in the electronic voting machines (EVMs), on Friday. Now, all eyes are set on December 3 when the results will be declared. Over 74 per cent voters have exercised their franchise in the district. Except for a few petty incidents of arguments among Congress workers and cane charge on BJP former Mandal President, polling in all the eight assemblies was conducted peacefully. People in large numbers reached polling booths to exercise their right to vote. At some polling booths the EVMs malfunctioned and created hindrance in smooth conduction of election process but they were rectified within time. Similarly, error in voters’ list also came to light at a few polling centres, depriving some voters from exercising their franchise.

 

Elaborated arrangements were made to ensure free and fair polls, with large number of security personnel deployed at all the polling centres. Additional security forces were deployed at vulnerable and sensitive booths. A total of 2,132 polling centres were set up for Assembly elections in the district, this included 303 in Patan constituency, 286 in Bargi, 225 in Jabalpur East, 240 in Jabalpur North, 214 in Jabalpur Cantt, 272 in Jabalpur West, 310 in Panagar and 282 in Sihora constituency. Polling started at 7 am and continued till 6 pm. Long queues of voters was witnessed at all the polling centres, especially in rural areas where maximum number of voters cast their votes in the first half of polling while huge crowd was seen throughout the day at polling booths in the city. Men, women, youths and senior citizens enthusiastically exercised their franchise. Especially, first timers were visibly excited. Likewise, disabled, hearing impaired, even visually impaired showed enthusiasm during voting. Polling ended at 6 pm.

 

After completion of election process, polling teams submitted EVMs and VVPAT machines to presiding officers at Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University (JNAU) till late in the night, on Friday. Later, the machines were kept under tight security at Strong Room in the University. Collector and District Returning Officer Saurabh Kumar Suman, Superintendent of Police Aditya Pratap Singh along with senior election officers welcomed the election teams and congratulated them for conducting the election successfully. Thousands of senior officials and employees including Sector Magistrate, Zonal Magistrate, Observers, Micro Observers etc were deployed on election duty. The district and police administration had also made adequate security arrangements for fair elections in the district.