Betul
A bus carrying polling officials and electronic voting machines (EVMs) caught fire in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district on Tuesday night while returning from Goula village. Although a few EVMs were damaged, all 36 people on board escaped without injury, according to a senior police official.
The fire broke out near Goula village in Multai tehsil due to a mechanical fault. Betul SP Nischal Jharia stated that the bus doors jammed, forcing the passengers to break the windows to escape. Two EVMs remained intact, but four others sustained minor damage. Despite the incident, everyone was able to evacuate safely and continue their journey on another bus. The police registered a case, and further investigation is underway.
Betul Collector DM Narendra Kumar Suryavanshi reported that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been notified, and further action will be taken based on their instructions. He confirmed that all polling personnel were safe and had submitted their polling materials. The cause of the fire was a mechanical failure, as initially determined by eyewitnesses.
During the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, nine parliamentary constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, including Betul, saw an approximate voter turnout of 66.05 percent. The elections featured prominent candidates such as former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP’s Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna, and Congress’s Digvijaya Singh from Rajgarh. Despite the fire incident, the polling process continued without further complications.
