In Madhya Pradesh, voting for by-polls in 28 Assembly seats in began on Tuesday morning. Polling started at 7 am and will end at 6 pm, with strict adherence to the COVID-19 restrictions.

As per official information, the last hour of voting will be for COVID-19 patients and people suspected to be suffering from the disease. Authorities have set up 250 flying squads, 173 surveillance teams and 293 police check-posts to ensure smooth polling. Overall 355 candidates, including 12 ministers, are in the fray and around 33,000 security personnel have been deployed in 19 districts. There are 63.67 lakh voters in the 28 constituencies and 9361 polling booths, including 3038 booths placed under the critical category.

Bypolls for 54 Assembly seats in ten states are being held today and Madhya Pradesh accounts for almost half of these seats. In most of the seats, there is a direct fight between the BJP and Congress, while in two or three seats of Gwalior Chambal region, a triangular contest is on the cards in the wake of the BSP's presence there, political observers said. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP's Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia, state BJP chief V D Sharma, and former chief minister Uma Bharti were BJP's prominent campaigners. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

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