Bhopal: Voting for by-elections to 1 Lok Sabha and 3 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh is going on. According to reports, a government teacher identified as Dayaram Jatav, who was deployed on by-poll duty, suffered cardiac arrest and died. The voter turnout of 63.02 was recorded till 5 PM in the by-polls to 3 Assembly seats and of 59.02% in the byelection to the Khandwa Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh where ruling BJP and opposition Congress are locked in a straight contest. Jobat, Prithvipur and Raigaon Assembly constituencies recorded turnouts of 46.121%, 68.16% and 55.86%, respectively, in the first six hours of voting till 1 PM, officials said.
Altogether 26, 50,004 voters are eligible to exercise franchise during the bypolls. Of 3,944 polling centres across 4 constituencies, 865 are deemed as sensitive by the administration.16 candidates each are in the fray for by-polls to Khandwa Lok Sabha seat and Raigaon (SC) Assembly constituency. In Khandwa, the BJP has fielded former district panchayat president Gyaneshwar Patil, denying the ticket to Harshvardhan Chauhan, the son of sitting MP Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan whose demise necessitated the by-poll. The Congress has fielded former MLA Rajnarayan Singh Purni.
In Jobat, Sulochana Rawat is the BJP’s nominee against Congress candidate Mahesh Patel. The seat fell vacant due to the death of sitting Congress legislator Kalawati Bhuria. In Raigaon (SC) seat, the BJP has fielded Pratima Bagri, the daughter-in-law of MLA Jugal Kishore Bagri whose death necessitated the by-poll. She will face Congress’ Kalpana Verma. In Prithvipur, the BJP has fielded former Samajwadi Party leader Shishupal Singh against Congress’s Nitendra Rathore, the son of former minister Brajendra Singh Rathore whose death necessitated the by-poll.