Madhya Pradesh all set for single-phase polls on Wednesday

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Amid tight security, Madhya Pradesh will vote for a new assembly on Wednesday. The voting will begin at 7 am at 65,341 polling booths, which have been set up for the single-phase elections to 230 seats of the state Assembly. As many as 2,000 booths will entirely be operated by women staff. Special arrangements have been made for visually impaired people to help them cast their votes.

"Three lakh government employees including 45,000 women have been deployed for polling duty. Over 65,000 polling booths are being made in the state. Around 2,000 entirely women-only polling booths would be functional. 160 polling booths will be fully operated by differently-abled personnel," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Madhya Pradesh, VL Kantha Rao has informed while sharing details of the poll preparedness in the state.

According to Rao, apart from three lakh employees from the state, 12,000 Central government employees will be working as micro-observers at different places. For the convenience of visually impaired voters, the commission has issued electors photo identity cards (EPIC) with Braille inscription.

A total of 5,04,95,251 voters including 41,30, 90 females and 1389 third gender will cast their votes to decide the fortune of as many as 2, 907candidates, who are in the fray. The State Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements to ensure that polling takes place in a free and fair manner.

Madhya Pradesh witnessed a high decibel campaign for the poll, which has remained a direct battle of ballots between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is eyeing a fourth term, while the Congress is expecting a comeback after the party lost the polls to the BJP in 2003.

Chouhan is contesting from his home constituency Budhni seat in Sehore district against Congress' Arun Yadav. The BJP had won 166 seats in 2013 Assembly polls, while the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had bagged 58 and four seats respectively. The result of the polls will be declared on December 11.