Raipur: A turnout of 71.93 per cent was recorded till 6 PM in the second phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday and polling remained incident-free, the Election Commission said.
Addressing a press conference here, Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said the polling percentage is likely to rise further as a number of people were still in the queue for voting. He said the polling percentage for this phase is slightly higher than that recorded during 2013 which was 71.13 per cent.
Polling for as many as 72 seats were conducted in the second phase. Sinha said Tuesday's election was peaceful and incident-free as elaborate security arrangements were made.
He added that a number of old voters, including those over 100 years of age, also exercised their franchise and the Commission had made arrangements for them.
The EC said with Tuesday's polling percentage the total average turnout for Chhattisgarh has been 74.17 per cent, which may go up further. During the first phase of voting on November 12 for 18 seats in the Naxal-affected areas of the state, a total of 76.42 per cent polling was recorded.
A total of 1,079 candidates, including 119 women, are contesting in 72 constituencies of the state with an electorate of 1,54,00,596. This is the last of the two-phase polls to the 90-member Assembly, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for the last 15 years. "Around 25.2 per cent polling has been registered till 12.30 pm," the poll official said.
There were reports of technical snag in electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some places and corrective measures were taken, an official said. The Congress alleged that there were attempts to "misuse and tamper EVMs". A delegation led by senior leader PL Punia met the Election Commission in Delhi over the issue.
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