Rajasthan Assembly Elections: The state of Rajasthan voted to elect representatives to their 200-member Legislative Assembly on Saturday 25 November. The state registered more than 68 per cent voter turnout by 5 pm on Saturday. Rajasthan Assembly Elections passed off peacefully barring a few stray incidents of violence.
Rajasthan is witnessing a bipolar contest involving the Congress and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to elect the new state government.
Polling at more than 51,000 polling booths in 199 assembly constituencies began at 7 am and ended at 6 pm, but officials said those already in queue at the polling booths would be allowed to vote.
In the last assembly elections in 2018, the state recorded a voter turnout of 74.06 per cent. The Election Commission has set a target of at least 75 per cent turnout in each constituency this time.
Nearly 10 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the first two hours of voting and the figure went up to nearly 25 per cent by 11 am and to more than 40 per cent by 1 pm.
The voting percentage till 5 pm was 68.24 per cent, an official said.
Polling in the Karanpur assembly constituency in Sriganganagar has been postponed due to the death of the Congress candidate.
The votes will be counted on December 3.
Two people – a polling agent of a candidate and an elderly voter – died of cardiac arrest at polling booths in Pali and Udaipur districts.
There are more than 5.25 crore registered voters in 199 seats while 1,862 candidates are in the fray.
In Sanwler village of Kaman in Deeg district, two persons including a policeman were injured in stone-pelting.
“Police fired 12 rounds in the air to disperse the crowd. Voting was disrupted for a few minutes due to the incident,” Deeg Superintendent of Police (SP) Brijesh Upadhyay said.
In Sikar’s Fatehpur, two groups clashed and a jawan was injured in the violence.
“Stone pelting occurred outside a polling booth. One jawan was injured in the stone pelting. No civilian was injured. Around 5-7 persons have been detained,” Fatehpur DSP Ram Pratap said.
An altercation occurred between a polling agent and a person outside a polling booth in Dholpur’s Bari seat
“Two vehicles were damaged in the ensuing violence. Polling was stopped for some time and resumed later,” Dholpur Collector Anil Kumar Agarwal said.
In Uniara of Tonk district, 40-50 people tried to enter a polling booth. However, the situation was brought under control, SP Rajarshi Raj said.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Kailash Chaudhary, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot were among the first ones to cast their votes. Gehlot and Shekhawat cast their votes in Jodhpur, Chaudhary in Balotra, Raje in Jhalawar and Pilot in Jaipur.
Rajasthan BJP president C P Joshi exercised his franchise in Chittorgarh and party MPs Diya Kumari and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore voted in Jaipur. Kumari and Rathore are among the seven BJP parliamentarians who are contesting the assembly elections.
An official said Shanti Lal, a polling agent of the BJP candidate from the Sumerpur constituency Joraram Kumawat, collapsed at booth number 47. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and then to the district hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Satyendra Arora, 62, collapsed at a polling booth in Udaipur. He was taken to a nearby hospital by his family members where doctors declared him dead.
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Updated: 25 Nov 2023, 07:56 PM IST