MP bypolls Vijaypur records 17.86 pc turnout Budhni 16.9 pc till 9 am

Bhopal, Nov 13 (PTI) A voter turnout of 17.86 per cent was recorded in Vijaypur and 16.90 per cent in Budhni till 9 am as polling was underway on Wednesday for byelections to the two assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, a poll 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. He is currently 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 earlier this year.

    BJP's Vijaypur candidate Ramniwas Rawat exercised his franchise at his ancestral village Sunvai.

    The ruling party's Budhni candidate Ramakant Bhargava voted at a booth in Shahganj town, an official said.

    Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's son Kartikey Singh Chouhan was among the early voters in Budhni.

    "I would like to urge everyone to participate in this festival of democracy," Kartikey told reporters after casting his vote.
    The BJP has fielded Shivraj Singh Chouhan's loyalist Ramakant Bhargava from Budhni against Congress' former state minister Rajkumar Patel.

     In Vijaypur, state forest minister Ramniwas Rawat is 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, including 1,47,197 men, 1,33,401 women and 195 service voters, as per a poll official.

    There are 327 polling stations in Vijaypur and 363 in Budhni, 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.

    Nearly 1,500 district police personnel and adequate numbers of Home Guards and Special Police Officers (SPOs) have been deployed for security.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)