Madhya Pradesh Fire: Bus Carrying EVMs Catches Fire, 4 Machines Damaged, Election Officials Escape Safely

Madhya Pradesh Fire: In a shocking incident in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district, a bus carrying election officials and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) caught fire, according to the reports. Fortunately, all election officials escaped the bus timely and no one got injured. However, some EVMs that recorded responses from people of many polling booths were damaged in the fire incident.

Narendra Suryavanshi, District Collector, Betul, confirmed the reports and told the media that the incident happened near Gola village on May 7 at around 11 pm. He added that EVMs from booth number 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, and 280 were being carried by the election officers, and out of six, four were damaged in the fire incident.

The collector added that he will forward the report to the state Election Commission for consideration and re-polling is likely to take place at the booths affected.

A spark inside the electric panel of the bus has been discovered as the reason behind the fire.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 3 Polling

In the third phase of polling on May 7, Betul Lok Sabha seat saw a significant turnout of 72.65%. Across the nine Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, provisional figures indicate a combined turnout of 66.05%, according to the Election Commission.

Among the 127 candidates contesting were notable figures such as Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, along with former chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan of BJP and Digvijaya Singh of Congress. The polling took place across Morena, Bhind (SC-reserved), Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal, Rajgarh, and Betul (ST-reserved) constituencies.