State is ready to embark on its democratic exercise as the voting for first phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on six seats commencing on April 19. Mahakaushal region is going to witness keen battle on Friday as most of the constituencies slated for first phase namely Sidhi, Shahdol (ST), Jabalpur, Mandla (ST), Balaghat and Chhindwara falls under this belt. Both BJP and Congress have left no stone unturned to woo voters in tribal-dominated Mandla constituency. Notably, it is the largest by area and the most populous constituency. Several heavyweights from ruling BJP visited here from the center. In terms of number of candidates, Jabalpur tops the list of with around 19 candidates. In this phase too, there is no fair participation by fair sex as out of total 88 candidates contesting in this phase, there are 81 male and only seven female.

 

Elaborating on the time of polling, CEO Rajan said that it will commence from 7 in the morning and will end at 6 in the evening. In an exception, the polling in Baihar, Lanji and Paraswada of the Balaghat Parliamentary constituency will end at 4 in the evening and the mock poll for the same will begin at 90 minutes prior to the time of elections. He said that around 57 lakh male, 55.88 lakh female and 187 third gender voters will be voting in the first phase. Among them, 771 voters have crossed the age of 100 and 3.44 teen voters will be casting their votes. Out of the 13,588 polling centres, 1,118 will be operated by females and 33 will be under the control of differently abled officers. 491 polling centres have been designated as model polling booths. Also, 2651 critical polling booths have been identified and 221 areas have been also categorised as vulnerable for the elections.

 

ECI has also identified 292 people which can cause hindrances in the smooth functioning of the turnout process and specific actions have been also taken against them. While most talked and sought about constituency is Chhindwara where former CM Kamal Nath’s son Nakul Nath is contesting elections against BJP’s Vivek (Bunty) Sahu. From electoral point of view, this seat is known for highest turnout percentage with 79.05 per cent and 82.39 per cent in 2014 and 2019 General Elections respectively. BJP is making all efforts to clinch this seat from Congress. In 2019 elections, this is the only seat won by Congress party.