MP bypoll: Voting begins

Bhopal, Nov 9: Voting began on Thursday morning for the crucial by-election to Chitrakoot Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh's Satna district, where the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress are in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. Amid tight security, the polling commenced at 0800 hrs at 257 polling centres – where a 1,98,122-strong electorate, including 91,730 women are expected to exercise their franchise. Voting will close at 1700 hrs. The counting of votes will be taken up on November 12. Elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair polling with 382 VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines being set up along with 385 EVMs (electronic voting machines). Nine companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CRPF) have been deployed besides Special Armed Force (SAF) and local police personnel.  The principal contest in Chitrakoot is between Mr Shankar Dayal Tripathi (BJP) and Mr Nilanshu Trivedi (Cong). The bypoll became inevitable, following the death of Prem Singh (Cong). A total of 12 nominees are in the fray including Akhil Bharatiya Mahasabha's Mahesh Sahu and nine independents Awadh Bihari Mishra, Mahendra Kumar Mishra, Shivcharan, Dinesh Kushwaha, Prabhat Kumari Singh, Ritesh Tripathi, Devaman Singh, Radha and Mohamed Raza Hussain. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan assumed the reins of campaigning in Chitrakoot for the saffron party. From the Congress camp; former Union ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath, the party's state unit chief Arun Yadav and Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh were among those on the campaign trail. UNI