Nearly 60% voter turnout recorded on 13 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan till 5 pm

Nearly 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm in 13 Lok Sabha seats of Rajasthan where polling is underway under the second phase on Friday.

Barring a few incidents of confrontation and complaints of fake voting in Barmer-Jaisalmer, the voting is being held peacefully.

According to the official data, 59.19 per cent voter turnout was recorded in 13 constituencies of Barmer-Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Chittorgarh, Banswara, Kota-Bundi, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.

At the same time, 73.25 per cent voting took place in the byelection for Bagidora assembly constituency of Banswara district.

The voting in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections is higher than the first phase which 12 seats went to poll on April 19. Voter turnout was 50.27 per cent by 5 pm in the first phase.

Around 2.8 crore voters are eligible to vote in the second phase of the polls.

Voting began at 7 am and was set to continue till 6 pm.

Those who reached the polling booths and standing in queue by 6 pm will be allowed to vote.

Highest voter turnout by 5 pm was recorded in Barmer-Jaisalmer, where 69.79 per cent votes were polled and the voting percentage was 68.71 in Banswara-Dungarpur.

Pali recorded the lowest turnout of 51.75 per cent till 5 pm, according to official data.

Voting percentage in other constituencies till 5 pm stood at 52.38 in Ajmer, 54.67 in Bhilwara, 61.81 in Chittorgarh, 57.75 in Jalore, 65.23 in Jhalawar-Baran, 58.35 in Jodhpur, 65.38 in Kota, 52.17 in Rajsamand, 51.92 in Tonk Sawai-Madhopur and 59.54 in Udaipur.

Enthusiasm was seen among the people who lined up at the polling booths to cast votes.

However, in Banswara, no voter reached the Adibheet polling booth during the initial hours. The locals have certain demands regarding compensation against land acquired for a power plant and have declared to boycott the elections.

The officials said they are trying to convince the voters to exercise their franchise.

In the first two hours of the voting, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is contesting from Kota-Bundi, BJP state president C P Joshi contesting from Chittorgarh and Union minister and BJP candidate from Jodhpur Gajendra Singh Shekhawat cast their votes.

Assembly speaker Vasudev Devnani cast his vote in Ajmer while former chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Ashok Gehlot exercised their franchise in Jhalawar and Jodhpur respectively.

A 108-year-old woman, Bhuri Bai, cast her vote at the Gunjara polling booth in the Kota-Bundi constituency. She was brought to the polling booth in a wheelchair by her family members.

A man, his son and granddaughters, representing three generations, reached a polling station at Sankand in Jalore to cast votes. They also took pictures at the selfie point in the booth.

A groom, Radhe Suthar, cast his vote at Bhadsoda in Chittorgarh before going for his wedding procession. Suthar told reporters that it is important to exercise franchise in a democracy, so he spared time to cast a vote before his marriage function.

Voting for 12 seats in the desert state was held in the first phase on April 19.

The Bagidora assembly seat in Banswara fell vacant after Congress MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya switched over to the BJP. Malviya is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Banswara as a BJP candidate.

Rajasthan has a total of 25 Lok Sabha seats, out of which 12 went to polls in the first phase on April 19 and polling on the remaining 13 seats is underway on Friday.