Poll-bound Madhya Pradesh has 5.03 cr voters in final list

Number of voters in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh has gone up by almost eight per cent to 5.03 crore from 4.66 crore in 2013, state Chief Electoral Officer said Thursday.

The Election Commission (EC) in Bhopal published the final voters' list of Madhya Pradesh, where assembly elections are due later this year.

"Madhya Pradesh has 5,03,94,086 (5.03 crore) voters in the final list published Thursday. In the 2013 assembly polls, names of 4.66 crore electors were registered. This means there is a rise of about 8 per cent voters in the state since the last assembly elections," state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VL Kantha Rao told reporters.

Of the total registered voters, 2,63,14,957 are males and 2,40,77,719 females.

Rao said a toal of 1410 people have registered themselves under the 'third gender' category.

He said a total of 1,37,83,383 voters belonged to the age group of 20-29 years, which is the biggest segment.

"Names of 5.02 crore voters were published in the list released on October 4 last year. Since then, about 96 lakh applications have been received either for amendments or addition of names. A total of 35.71 lakh applicants had sought removal of names whereas 36.13 lakh applicants wanted their names included in the rolls," he said.

Responding to a query, the CEO said the average cost incurred towards conducting electoral process per voter is Rs 50-60.

"We have sought a budget of Rs 413 crore for the election expenditure which was Rs 152 crore in the 2013 polls," he said.

Rao said Mahobai (104), a resident of Badnapur village under Nepanagar assembly constituency in Burhanpur district, is the eldest registered voter in Madhya Pradesh who will exercise her franchise for the 14th time.