A third of Madhya Pradesh votes

Bhopal, April 10 (IANS) A third of the electorate in nine Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh hd cast their votes by Thursday afternoon in an election that was largely peaceful, an official said.

An Election Commission official said that in the initial three hours, over 15 percent balloting took place and it climbed up to 36 percent by afternoon.

Shahdol constituency showed a healthy turnout of 44.61 percent while Rewa seat comparatively lagged behind at 26.04 percent.

Reports reaching her said that two EVMs malfunctioned in Sidhi and Dindori while one malfunctioned in Shahdol.

As many as 118 candidates are in the fray in the nine constituencies - Chhindwara, Satna, Rewa, Balaghat, Sidhi, Shahdol, Mandla, Jabalpur, and Hoshangabad - where over 11 million voters will decide their fate.

Polling for the rest of the constituencies will be held over the next two phases April 17 and 24.

In Chhindwara, Congress leader and union minister Kamal Nath is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party's Choudhary Chandrabhan Singh.

Voting is taking place at 16,592 polling stations where as many as 132,736 poll officials are on duty.