Assembly polls 2018: Voter turnout dips in Mizoram, goes up in MP, says EC

The voter turnout in Mizoram Wednesday saw a significant dip whereas it went up in Madhya Pradesh, according to the Election Commission.

Mizoram recorded 75 per cent voter turnout which was 83.41 per cent in 2013. In the 2008 assembly polls, it was 82.35 per cent, the poll panel said.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the turnout was 61.06 per cent.

The EC said in Madhya Pradesh, a record 75 per cent voters turned up at polling stations to exercise their franchise. In 2013, the polling percentage was 72.13 per cent.

In Madhya Pradesh, as many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for 230 seats, but the main contest is between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters.

Around 3,00,782 government employees, including 45,904 women, were on poll duty and 65,341 polling stations were set up.

Polling was held in all 40 assembly seats in the northeast state.

The state had an electorate of 7,70,395, which included 3,94,897 female voters. There were 209 candidates, 15 of them women, in the fray.

Of the 1,179 polling booths, 47 were classified 'critical' and as many as 'vulnerable' by the Election Commission.

In Mizoram, around 55 per cent of Bru voters in the six relief camps in Tripura came here Wednesday and exercised their franchise at the 15 special polling booths created for them after public outrage over their place of voting.

There was an apprehension that voter turnout of Bru refugees would be very less as some of their leaders were initially reluctant to come to Mizoram and were demanding the earlier system of exercising their franchise at the relief camps.