Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Voting is being held in 43 districts in the second phase today to elect the city government in Madhya Pradesh. In Morena, the BSP's mayoral candidate Mamta Maurya was chased by the police. She was appealing for votes in her favour.
In another incident, in Tikamgarh, a clash broke out between BJP MLA Rakesh Giri and former Congress minister Yadvendra Singh Bundela.
The situation was, however, brought under control due to timely interference by the police.
According to reports from the districts about 40% of the voters had exercised their franchise till 11 am.
State Election Commissioner Basant Pratap Singh has said that the voting for the second and last phase of Urban Body Election will be held on Wednesday from 7 am to 5 pm. In the second phase, 49,09,280 voters will be able to exercise their voting rights. Of these, 25,20,923 are males, 23,88,65 are females and 292 are other voters.
The first phase of polling was held on July 6.
In the second phase, polling will be held in 5 municipal corporations, 40 municipality councils and 169 Nagar Parishad in 43 districts. A total of 6,829 polling centres have been set up for this. Out of these, 1,627 polling centres are sensitive. About 34,000 officers and employees deployed for poll duty. About 17,000 police personnel have been deployed to ensure free and fair polls.
In the second phase, a total of 44 mayoral candidates are in the fray in 5 municipal corporations. There are 3,657 posts of corporators in a total of 214 bodies. Out of these, election on 79 posts has been held unopposed. Election is to be held on the remaining 3578 posts. For this 15,312 candidates are contesting the elections.
