High-pitch campaign for 8 Lok Sabha seats in MP draws to close

The high voltage campaign for the eight Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, which includes Bhopal constituency where senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh is locked in a battle with BJP nominee and Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur, came to an end on Friday evening.

Polling for the eight seats- Bhopal, Morena, Bhind (SC), Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha and Rajgarh will be held on Sunday from 7 am to 6 pm.

This will be the third phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, with the first and second phases having been held on April 29 and May 6. The last phase will be held on May 19.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi were among the leaders who addressed public meetings for these seats.

While seven of these seats were won by the BJP in 2014, the Guna constituency was won by the Congress.

Guna, one of the high-profile seats in this phase, would seal the fate of AICC general secretary and Congress candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Union minister and BJP nominee Narendra Singh Tomar is in the fray from Morena.

In the last leg of electioneering for these seats, PM Modi had addressed two public meetings respectively at Sagar and another in Gwalior, whereas Rahul Gandhi had also campaigned in Gwalior, Bhind and Morena parliamentary seats.

Amit Shah had campaigned for the party candidates in Bhopal and Rajgarh.

Besides them, BSP Supremo Mayawati also addressed a public rally in Morena.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh and Smiriti Irani also addressed rallies in state ahead of the third phase of polling.

Total 136 candidates are in the fray for the eight Lok Sabha seats.

There are 25 candidates in the fray in Morena, 18 each in Bhind and Gwalior, 11 in Guna, 10 in Sagar, 13 in Vidisha, 30 in Bhopal and 11 in Rajgarh, an official of the Election Commission said.

Total 18,141 polling booths have been set up for more than 1.44 crore electorate, including 32,909 service voters, across these eight seats, the official added.

Counting of votes will take place on May 23.

In the 2014 national elections, the BJP had won 27 of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh. However, the Congress had later won the Ratlam seat in a by-election, taking its tally to three in the state.

The Congress, which wrested power from the BJP in Madhya Pradesh last year, after a gap of 15 years, is optimistic of putting up a good show in this election.

But the BJP leaders are equally upbeat, claiming a wave in favour of Narendra Modi and expecting to repeat of their spectacular performance of 2014.