Rajasthan Polls: Over 68% voter turnout, two deaths, few incidents of violence mark battle between Congress, BJP

livemint.com:

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 in Rajasthan 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.