Counting will be on December 11, 2018.
Amid high security, voting was held to elect a 230-member assembly in Madhya Pradesh and 40 MLAs in Mizoram on Wednesday. People thronged in queues in both states that witnessed both first-time voters, and voting veterans.
In MP, the BJP is eyeing a fourth straight term in office, while the Congress is hoping for a comeback in the state which was once its stronghold.
In Mizoram, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is seeking a third consecutive term and the BJP looking to uproot the Congress in its last bastion in the Northeast.
While polling process was peaceful in the first half of the day, police managed to seize campaign material from BJP's polling agents from a polling booth in Saint Mary's, Bhopal as it was within 200 meters of a polling booth.
One person was taken to custody. Meanwhile in Dabra, in MP's Gwalior district, an EVM was not working in polling booth number 178 for a few minutes, but later it was reported that it was functioning normally. There were other reports about faulty EVMs, but nothing has been officially confirmed by the Election Commission.
Both the BJP and Congress have a lot to fight for in the final Assembly elections before the Lok Sabha elections next year.
►18:40: 75% voter turnout recorded till 5 pm in Mizoram. Final figure yet to come in.
►18:37: 883 ballot units and 881 control units were replaced today. 2126 VVPATs were replaced during mock poll and during voting in Madhya Pradesh: VL Kantha Rao, Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh
►18:35: 74.61% voter turnout recorded till 6 pm in Madhya Pradesh. Voting still underway.
► 16: 40: 67% voting in Mizoram so far
► 15: 25: Around 58 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling in 40 Assembly constituencies of Mizoram; meanwhile, MP recorded 50% turnout
► 14: 45: Around 49 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling in 40 Assembly constituencies of Mizoram; meanwhile, MP recorded 34% turnout
► 13: 45: Around 29 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling in 40 Assembly constituencies of Mizoram, Chief Electoral Officer Ashish Kundra said.
► 13: 45: There were few complaints on malfunction of some EVMs & VVPAT machines, they’ve been replaced. If it's observed that voters left due to malfunction, we can consider re-polling at that particular polling station: CEC OP Rawat
► 11:00 am: 15% voter turnout was reported in Mizoram until 9 am, while MP witnessed a 6.3% turnout.
► 10:55 am: One Election Commission official in Guna, and two in Indore have passed away due to cardiac arrest: ANI
Madhya Pradesh
1.80 lakh security personnel, including those drawn from central paramilitary forces, have been deployed on duty to ensure peaceful polling in the state, where the ruling BJP and opposition Congress will vie for supremacy.
The battle of ballots in Madhya Pradesh is just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls slated in the first half of 2019.
As many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray for the 230 seats, but the main contest is between the Congress and BJP - the Big Two of MP politics.
The state has 5.04 crore eligible voters. According to the final electoral roll, the state has 5,04,95,251 voters - 2,63,01,300 males, 2,41,30,390 females, 1,389 third gender and 62,172 postal electors.
Addressing a press conference Tuesday, State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) V L Kantha Rao said, "All preparations for the Wednesday polling have been completed. All polling parties have left for their respective booths and most of them have reached their destination".
Mizoram
It's a historic election in the state as for the first time, authorities have decided to connect all polling booths through wireless communication for the first time leaving no "shadow areas" at all.
"For the first time in Mizoram's election history, all polling booths will be covered by wireless communication. It will help in timely reporting of every development and progress of the polling," Mizoram Deputy Inspector General of Police (Training & Armed Branch) Joseph Lalchhuana told PTI in an interview.
Till the last election in 2014 for the Lok Sabha, not all areas were connected through wirless technology and there was a delay in receiving information from far-flung booths, he added.
Lalchhuana, who is also the Assistant State Police Nodal Officer for the assembly elections, said: "By doing this (wireless connection), we have eliminated all shadow areas from Mizoram. Shadow areas means the place where there is no communication." For operating the system as per the Election Commission of India guidelines, special training sessions were conducted for the Mizoram Police personnel and now everything is in place to conduct the polls efficiently, he added.
"We take pride in it. We have tested it under the direct supervision of our DGP Balaji Srivastava and are fully confident of supporting the Election Commission as and when required," Lalchhuana said.
Mizoram has 7,70,395 registered voters who will cast their franchise in 1,164 polling booths across the state, while an additional 15 special booths have been created at Kanhmun village in Mamit district for the Bru refugees coming from six camps in Tripura.
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