18.73 pc voter turnout till 11 am in Chhattisgarh's Raipur City South assembly seat bypoll

Raipur, Nov 13 (PTI) A voter turnout of 18.73 per cent was recorded till 11 am on Wednesday in the byelection to the Raipur City South assembly seat in Chhattisgarh, a poll official said.
Thirty candidates are in the fray for the bypoll to the constituency, though it is largely seen as a direct contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress.
"Voting began at 7 am amid tight security. In the first four hours, 18.73 per cent voter turnout was recorded," the official said.
Ruling BJP's candidate Sunil Kumar Soni and Congress nominee Akash Sharma cast their votes at Maharana Pratap School and Pt Sundarlal Sharma School polling booths here respectively.
Voters can exercise their franchise till 6 pm, an official said.
The seat fell vacant after sitting BJP legislator and former state minister Brijmohan Agrawal resigned following his election to the Lok Sabha from the Raipur parliamentary constituency.
The counting of votes will take place on November 23.
According to poll officials, there are 2,71,169 electors, including 1,33,800 males, 1,37,317 females and 52 transgenders in this constituency. A total of 253 polling booths have been set up for the bypoll and more than 1,000 security personnel have been deployed.
In the last year's assembly elections, the BJP had registered a landslide victory, winning 54 out of 90 seats in the state while the Congress had won 35 and Gondwana Gantantra Party bagged one seat.

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