Voting underway for Chitrakoot Assembly bypoll in MP

Bhopal: The polling for the byelection to Madhya Pradesh’s Chitrakoot Assembly seat was underway since this morning with about 27 per cent voters exercising their franchise in the first three hours, an official said.

The voting started across the constituency at 8 am and around 27 per cent polling was recorded till 11 am, an official of the Election Commission (EC) said. Congress candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi, BJP’s nominee Shankar Dayal Tripathi and 10 others are in fray for the byelection in the Assembly segment, which lies bordering Uttar Pradesh. The BSP has not fielded its candidate in the bypoll.

The byelection was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Prem Singh (65) after a prolonged illness in May this year. He had won the Chitrakoot seat thrice — in 1998, 2003 and 2013. There are 1.98 lakh voters in the Chitrakoot Assembly constituency, an EC official earlier said. As many as 257 polling booths with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were set up for the bypoll, he said.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and MP BJP chief Nandkumar Chouhan had campaigned for the party’s candidate. Besides, Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Union Minister Kamal Nath, Leader of Opposition in MP Assembly Ajay Singh tried to drum up support for their party’s nominee.