Rajasthan voter turnout 75.45 per cent, slightly higher than last Assembly polls
JAIPUR: Rajasthan recorded a voter turnout of 75.45 per cent in the Assembly polls held on Saturday, marginally higher than the figure of previous elections in 2018.
In 2018, the state registered a turnout of 74.71 per cent.
Voting at more than 51,000 polling booths in 199 out of the 200 Assembly constituencies in the state was held on Saturday.
Due to the demise of the Congress candidate, election in the Karanpur Assembly constituency of Sriganganagar district was
postponed.
Rajasthan Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said on Sunday that 75.45 per cent of the electorate voted in the elections, including 0.83 per cent who used postal ballots.
He said 74.53 per cent of the male voters and 74.72 per cent of the female voters cast their votes. In 2018, the overall voting turnout was 74.71 per cent. He said 74.75 per cent of the male voters and 74.67 per cent of the female voters had voted in the last elections.
In the Kushalgarh Assembly constituency, the turnout was 88.13 per cent as compared to 86.13 per cent in 2018.
In the Pokaran constituency, the voting percentage was 87.79 as compared to 87.50 in 2018.
The Tijara Assembly constituency recorded a turnout of 86.11 per cent as against 82.08 per cent in 2018.
Gupta said that the lowest voting through EVMs was recorded in the Ahor Assembly constituency at 61.24 per cent. The constituency had recorded 61.53 per cent voting in 2018.
Of the total 5,25,38,105 voters in these 199 Assembly constituencies, 3,92,11,399 cast their votes -- 1,88,27,294 women, 2,03,83,757 men and 348 third gender voters.
The election in Rajasthan was a bipolar contest between the Congress and the BJP.
The Congress is aiming to buck the trend of the ruling party being voted out every five years, while the BJP is eyeing a return in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, state unit president Govind Singh Dotasra and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, and BJP leaders, including former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore and deputy leader of opposition Satish Poonia, were among the 1,862 candidates in the 199 seats.
The Election Commission had made elaborate arrangements to ensure smooth polling with more than 1.70 lakh security personnel being deployed across the state.
Polling passed off peacefully barring a few stray incidents of violence.
Director General of Police (Law and Order) Rajeev Sharma said seven cases of election-related incidents have been registered by the police and 77 people were arrested or detained in various cases in the state on Saturday.