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Journalism of Courage
In its single-phase polling Friday, Madhya Pradesh recorded its highest ever Assembly election turnout while Chhattisgarh’s overall turnout, after voting in the second phase held on the day, has declined from the 2018 election figure.
In MP, 76.22% of the electorate turned out to vote, up from 75.63% in 2018, which was the previous record high since the state’s formation in 1956. In 2013, the turnout had crossed the 70% mark for the first time, hitting 72.07%.
Chhattisgarh’s overall turnout, however, fell to 76.31% from 76.88% in 2018. The state, which was carved out of MP in 2000, recorded its highest turnout in 2003 with 77.12%. In the five elections held in the state so far, turnout has never dropped below 70%.
In Chhattisgarh’s first phase elections on November 7, which saw voting in 20 seats, the turnout stood at 78%, which was 1.53 percentage points higher than in 2018’s first-phase seats. The turnout for the state’s remaining 70 seats in the second phase this time was 75.88% as compared to 76.34% in 2018.
Of the state’s 230 Assembly seats, the turnout increased in 144 seats this time as compared to the 2018 figure while the remaining 86 seats saw a decline in polling now.
The Sailana Assembly seat, located along the Rajasthan border, saw the highest turnout at 90%, which is also the third highest turnout in MP’s history. Sailana saw the highest turnout in 2018 too, at 89.01%. On the other hand, the Jobat seat that borders Gujarat saw the lowest turnout at 54.04% – in 2018 too, it had the lowest turnout at 52.72%. Both seats are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
In eight seats, the turnout increased from 2018 by more than 5 percentage points with the highest increase of 5.99 percentage points recorded in the northern Rajnagar seat. The biggest decline in turnout was in the western Sardarpur seat, where it fell by 7.29 percentage points from 2018.
Of the 47 ST-reserved seats, the turnout fell in 27 seats as compared to 2018. The seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), though, fared better with turnout falling in just eight.
Among the districts, Seoni had the highest turnout at 85.68% while Alirajpur had the lowest at 60.1%. Some of the state’s lowest polling percentages were reported from major cities, including Gwalior, Bhopal and Indore.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Budhni seat was among those that saw a decline in polling from 2018, recording a turnout of 81.59% compared to 83.7% last time. In Chhindwara, where the Congress’s state unit chief and ex-CM Kamal Nath contested, the turnout rose from 80.74% in 2018 to 81.5% this time.
Despite seeing a decline in turnout from last time, Chhattisgarh still recorded its third highest turnout. In the state’s 90 Assembly seats, the turnout increased in only 36 and declined in the remaining 54.
For the second consecutive election, the Kurud Assembly seat saw the highest turnout at 90.17%, up from 88.9% in 2018. Kurud’s polling percentage this time is the highest ever recorded in the state.
The lowest turnout was recorded in the ST-reserved Bijapur seat at just 48.37%. The polling percentage here declined from 48.94% in 2018, when it had also seen the state’s lowest turnout. Bijapur was among the seats that went to polls in the first phase and is among the left-wing extremism (LWE)-affected regions.
Dantewada, another LWE-affected and ST-reserved seat, saw the biggest increase in turnout, rising by 9.31 percentage points from 60.57% in 2018 to 69.88% this time. With a 5.22 percentage point decline, Bilaspur saw the biggest drop in turnout from 61.61% in 2018 to 56.39% this time. Bilaspur is the third most populous city in the state.
Of 29 ST-reserved seats in Chhattisgarh, the turnout fell in 15 seats as compared to 2018. However, eight of its 10 SC seats saw a decline in turnout.
Among the districts, Dhamtari had the highest turnout at 86.65%. Similar to MP, the state’s urban centres, including Raipur, recorded low turnouts and saw a decline in polling percentages from 2018.
While CM Bhupesh Baghel’s Patan seat saw a turnout increase by almost 1 percentage point from 83.33% in 2018 to 84.27% this time, his key rival ex-CM Raman Singh’s Rajnandgaon seat saw a turnout increase only marginally, from 78.95% to 79.13%.
