Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Electors were exercising their franchise for the bypolls to Budhni and Vijaypur assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, a senior election official said.
"Polling began in a peaceful manner across all booths in the two constituencies from 7 am," Madhya Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sukhveer Singh told PTI.
The bypoll to Vijaypur in Sheopur district was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP and was made a minister in the Mohan Yadav cabinet.
The Budhni bypoll was required as sitting MLA and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected to the Lok Sabha.
The BJP has fielded former Vidisha MP and Union Agriculture Minister Chouhan's loyalist Ramakant Bhargava from Budhni against Congress' former state minister Rajkumar Patel.
BJP candidate Ramniwas Rawat votes at booth no. 102 in his constituency | FP Photo
In Vijaypur, the state's forest minister Ramniwas Rawat pitted against Congress' Mukesh Malhotra, a senior tribal leader.
The number of registered voters in Vijaypur assembly constituency is 2,54,817, comprising 1,33,581 men and 1,21,131,women and 103 service voters.
In Budhni, there are 2,76,604 voters. These include 1,47,197 men, 1,33,401 are women and 195 service voters, as per a poll official.
There are 327 polling stations in Vijaypur, while the figure for Budhni is 363, the CEO earlier said.
A total of 2,760 poll officials and employees have been deployed to conduct the by-elections in both the assembly constituencies, he said.
About 1,500 district police personnel and adequate numbers of Home Guards and Special Police Officers (SPOs) have been deployed for security.
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