Bhopal, May 13 (PTI) A provisional voter turnout of 71.72 per cent was recorded till the polling ended at 6 pm on Monday in eight Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh in the fourth and final phase of the general elections in the state, officials said.

As per official data, Khargone recorded a 75.79 per cent turnout, followed by Dewas at 74.86 per cent, Mandsour at 74.5 per cent, Ujjain at 73.03 per cent, Dhar at 71.5 per cent, Khandwa at 70.72 per cent and Indore at 60.53 pe cent.

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Khargone recorded the highest turnout at 75.79 per cent, while Indore logged the lowest at 60.53 per cent, the official said.

"These are tentative figures, and it will go up after the final compilation," the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Anupam Rajan told reporters.

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The polling was held peacefully, and no major incident was reported, he said.

In 2019, 75.65 per cent polling was recorded in these eight seats, Rajan said.

The total polling in all 29 seats in the state in 2019 was 71.16 per cent, he said.

At the end of polling at 6 pm, rains were reported in Sailana, Dhar and Shajapur areas and voters who turned up at the polling booth by that time were allowed to exercise their franchise, an official said.

At least 70 visually impaired women from Mahesh Drihtiheen Kalyan Sangh in Indore turned up for voting by setting an example for others in the constituency, which has the highest number of voters in the state, officials said.

They voted in a booth set up in the Green Field school in the city.

Divyang brand ambassador Vikram Agnihotri exercised his franchise and got his toe inked at a polling booth in Indore.

Among the early voters, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and his family cast their votes in his hometown Ujjain, while in the Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat, Congress candidate former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria, BJP nominee Anita Chauhan and her minister husband Nagar Singh Chauhan exercised their franchise.

BJP minister and senior party leader Kailash Vijaywargiya and his family members cast their vote in Indore.

A group of voters reached the polling station in a decorated bullock cart in the Nepanagar assembly segment under the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat.

A newlywed couple arrived at the Nepanagar booth in their wedding finery to cast their votes.

In Mandsour, polling staff were seen taking an elderly voter in a wheelchair to cast her ballot.

Voters in Rahimgarh and Picchla gram panchayats under the Mandsour Lok Sabha seats initially refused to participate in polling, citing unresolved issues, but were pacified by officials and brought to the polling booths.

State Finance Minister Jagdish Devda and his family also exercised their franchise in the Mandsour Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier in the day, rains disrupted polling in some areas of the Khandwa Lok Sabha seat and parts of some other constituencies, but polling went on peacefully, Rajan said.

Voting began at 7 am and ended at 6 pm in the eight constituencies where 18,007 polling stations were set up, as per officials.

A total of 74 candidates, including 69 men and five women, were in the fray in the fourth phase.

There are 1,63,70,654 eligible voters, including 82,48,091 men, 81,22,175 women and 388 persons of the third gender, the CEO earlier said.

Spread over 64 assembly segments in 15 districts in the state's Malwa-Nimar region, these eight constituencies are considered the bastion of the BJP.

The Indore Lok Sabha seat has the maximum number of 14 candidates, and Khargone has the least five nominees.

Of the eight seats, Indore also has the highest number of eligible voters at 25,26,803, while Ujjain has the least number of 17,98,704 electors, the CEO said.

In Ratlam, there was a straight fight between former Union minister Kantilal Bhuria (73) and state Forest Minister Nagar Singh Chauhan's wife Anita Chauhan.

In Indore, the 'None of the Above' (NOTA) option unexpectedly hogged the limelight after Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination at the last minute and joined the BJP.

As Bam's move set the stage for a one-sided contest for BJP's Shankar Lalwani, who won from Indore by nearly 5.4 lakh votes last time, the Congress urged voters to hit the NOTA button.

Of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, polling was held in 21 in the first three phases on April 19 and 26, and May 7. Votes will be counted on June 4.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)