Polling begins in Madhya Pradesh

Polling for the 230-member MP Assembly began with a keen contest between the incumbent BJP and the opposition Congress.

Polling for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly began on Thursday in an election which is being seen as a keen contest between the BJP which wants to retain power and the opposition Congress.

The election will decide the fate of prominent leaders, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Bharatiya Janashakti (BJ) chief Uma Bharti and senior BJP minister Babulal Gaur. Senior Congress ministers, including former chief minister Digvijay Singh, are giving the polls a miss.

Polling began at 8 am for the 13th MP assembly.

There are a total of 3,180 contestants in the poll fray whose fate would be sealed by the electorate comprising 3,56,88,173 voters. Of the total 47,214 polling stations, more than 12,000 booths have been declared as sensitive.

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The BJP and the Congress have put up candidates in 228 constituencies.

The main contest is between the BJP and the Congress although, other parties including the BJ, Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj party and the Gondwana Ganatantra party have also put up sizable number of candidates in the elections.

State Congress President Suresh Pachouri and his BJP counterpart are not contesting the polls.

The BJP’s campaign was led by senior party leader L K Advani who was assisted among others by party president Rajnath Singh, senior party leaders Venkaiah Naidu, Anant Kumar, Sushma Swaraj and Murli Manohar Joshi.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi led her party’s campaign with a call for change. Party General secretary Rahul Gandhi, and Digvijay Singh and union ministers – Arjun Singh and Kamal Nath also canvassed support for party candidates.

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