Rajasthan turnout: 64 pc in this phase, 66 pc overall; beats 2014 percentage

Rajasthan Monday recorded an overall turnout of over 66 per cent at the end of its second and final round of polling, notching three percentage points higher than the voting in 2014.

Chief Electoral Officer Anand Kumar said 63.78 per cent voters turned out in the 12 Rajasthan constituencies which went to the polls in the second round, in which Union ministers Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Arjun Ram Meghwal are in the fray.

Combined with the turnout in the earlier round on April 29, for 13 seats, the overall voting percentage for the state's 25 seats is 66.12. In comparison, turnout for the entire state was 63.11 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

 

The figure for Monday's phase may be slightly revised in the final count, officials said.

Ganganagar recorded the maximum turnout of 74.32 per cent in this round, part of the fifth phase of polling nationwide.

Jaipur recorded 68.15 per cent, Sikar 66.57, Alwar 66.20, Churu 65.15, Bikaner 61.85, Jaipur Rural 61.58, Nagaur 60.90, Jhunjhunu 60.51, Dausa 58.82, Bharatpur 58.65 and Karauli-Dholpur 53.92.

Kumar said 444 VVPAT (paper trail machines), 46 ballot units and 40 control units were replaced following 350 complaints.

DGP (law and order) M L Lather said polling was peaceful in the 12 parliamentary constituencies, barring a few sporadic incidents. He listed three incidents in Jhunjhunu, Sikar and Bikaner.

Three polling officer died during the entire polling process, two apparently due to cardiac arrest and one in a road accident, Kumar said.

Some centenarians are among those who braved the scorching heat to cast their vote.

Veera Singh (114) and Gurdayal Kaur (102) cast their vote in Sriganganagar district. In Jaipur, 104-year-old Gangaram voted.

As many as 23,738 polling stations were set up in the state for this phase.

Jaipur Rural sees a faceoff between two former Olympians: shooter and Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (BJP) is contesting against discus thrower Krishna Poonia, fielded by the Congress.

The seat, which Rathore won in 2014 with a margin of 3.32 lakh votes, is dominated by the Jat community to which Poonia belongs.

Union minister and former IAS officer Arjun Ram Meghwal and ex-IPS officer and Congress candidate Madangopal Meghwal are contesting in Bikaner. They are cousins.

In Nagaur, Former BJP leader and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) founder Hanuman Beniwal is fighting as a Bharatiya Janata Party ally against Congress candidate and former MP Jyoti Mirdha.

Two 'sants', Sumedhanand Saraswati and Baba Balaknath, are trying their luck in Sikar and Alwar constituencies respectively.

Former Union minister and an ex-royal Bhanwar Jitendra Singh is the Congress candidate in Alwar.

In Dausa, both the BJP and Congress candidates are women. The BJP fielded former MP Jaskaru Meena against Congress nominee Savita Meena, the wife of sitting Congress MLA Murari Meena.

All 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan were won by the BJP in 2014.

But the Congress recovered lost ground, winning the last assembly polls.

The state recorded a turnout of 68.17 per cent in the previous phase in which polling took place in 13 constituencies -- Tonk-Sawaimadhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.