Madhya Pradesh: 80 candidates including 4 women, 1 third gender in fray for second phase of LS polls in state

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 25 : Madhya Pradesh is set to go for the polls for the second phase of Lok Sabha election from 7 am onwards on Friday and a total of 80 candidates, including four women candidates and a third gender candidate, are in the fray in this phase in the state, an official said.
Six parliamentary seats in the state - Tikamgarh (SC), Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa and Hoshangabad- will go to the polls in the second phase of voting on April 26 from 7 am to 6pm.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral officer, Anupam Rajan said, "Six parliamentary seats in Madhya Pradesh will undergo polling tomorrow in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. A total of 47 assembly constituencies are included in these six Lok Sabha seats which will undergo polling. There are 80 candidates in fray which include 75 men, four women and one third gender, Durga Masi who is contesting as an independent candidate from Damoh."
Satna has the maximum number of candidates where a total of 19 candidates are in the fray while Tikamgarh has the least number of candidates which is seven. The Polling time will be from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and the polling teams have left for all the polling stations in the state, he added.
"There are a total of 12828 polling stations for the second phase of LS polls in the state. Of these polling stations, 2865 critical polling stations have been identified. Apart from this, there are 1,136 pink polling booths, where all the polling personnel are women, in the second phase of polling in the state," Rajan said.
The total number of voters for the second phase of LS polls is 1,11,62,460 in which 58,32,333 are male, 53,29,972 female and 155 are third gender voters. There are 1,18,167 differently-abled voters, 64,703 voters are above 85 years and number of 100 years plus voters is 1108. The number of voters in the age group of 18-19 years is 3,29,317 and 13,230 are service voters, the officer further said.
He also said that all arrangements were made at the polling booths and in view of heat, shades, water facilities and medical kits were also made available.
Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh are being conducted in four phases. The first phase of polling was held on April 19. The second phase will be conducted on Friday, April 26 and the next two phases will be held on May 7 and May 13. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.
Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of parliamentary representation. Out of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved.