Voters in booths of 8 MP seats boycott polls over poor roads

Bhopal: Unhappy over lack of good roads, voters across various polling stations in eight Assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh on Monday boycotted voting.

In several booths across Raisen, Umaria, Ratlam, Morena, Damoh, Rajgarh and Betul districts, voters boycotted polling, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, V L Kantha Rao told reporters here. The reason given by the electorate behind this was "lack of construction of roads", he said. Voters did not turn up till 2 PM at polling booth numbers 135, 136 170 and 174 in Udaipura seat of Raisen district; at polling booth number 72 in Bandhavgarh seat of Umaria; at polling station number 78 of Alot seat in Ratlam district; and polling booth number 77 in Ambah seat of Morena district, he said. Polling was also boycotted in Damoh district`s Patharia and Hata seats polling station numbers 183 and 139 respectively besides Narsinghgarh seat`s polling booth number 68 in Rajgarh and Ghodadongari seat`s polling station number 189 in Betul. However, polling began at Hata seat after sometime, Rao said. Rao said efforts are on to convince voters to exercise their franchise but so far they are not relenting. The poll per cent in naxal-affected Balaghat district`s three seats-- Lanjhi, Paraswada and Baihar-- till 2 pm was 55 per cent.