4 EVMs Damaged As Fire Breaks Out In Bus Carrying Polling Personnel Near MP's Betul LS Constituency

A fire broke out in a bus carrying polling personnel in Madhya Pradesh's Betul, damaging four EVMs

A bus carrying polling personnel caught fire in Madhya Pradesh's Betul Lok Sabha constituency. ( Image Source :X/@ANI )

Four electronic voting machines were damaged in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday night after a bus carrying polling personnel, returning from Goula Village in the Multai assembly constituency of Betul Lok Sabha constituency caught fire. All of them were reportedly safe as they managed to jump off the bus on time.

The incident occurred on May 7 on the day when the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections was held.

#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh: A bus, carrying polling personnel, burst into flames while returning from Goula Village in the Multai assembly constituency of Betul Lok Sabha constituency last night. The polling personnel jumped off the bus and were safe. However, four EVMs suffered… pic.twitter.com/wlqMXrlB2z

— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2024

Polling Held In 9 Seats Of Madhya Pradesh In Phase 3

During the third phase, nine seats in Madhya Pradesh including Betul, Guna, Morena, Bhind, Rajgarh, Vidisha, Gwalior, and Bhopal, cast ballots in the state with an approximate voting turnout percentage of 66.05 percent.

Rajgarh reported the highest voting turnout with 75.39 percent. Meanwhile, Betul reported a 72.65 percent voting turnout.

Bhind, Bhopal, Guna, and Gwalior reported 54.87, 62.29, 71.95, 61.68 percent voting turnout, respectively. Morena and Rajgarh recorded a 58.22 and 75.39 percent turnout while Sagar and Vidisha recorded 65.19 and 74.05 percent turnout, respectively.

The prominent candidates who were in the fray from Madhya Pradesh were former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, the BJP candidate from Vidisha, Union Minister and BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, the Congress nominee from Rajgarh, and former Bhopal mayor Alok Sharma, BJP's candidate from Bhopal.

On the polling day, there were reports of EVM malfunctioning at a few polling booths in Rajgarh. These claims were quashed by the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Anupam Rajan, who spoke to the Guna District Collector and found out no such incident occurred.

Although the overall voting was conducted peacefully across the state, there was a clash reported from Bhind village between suporters of two candiates over allegations of bogus voting. Following this, a police official stated that around four-five people were injured in the clash.