MP bypolls: Vijaypur records 77.85% turnout, Budhni 77.32%

Bhopal: Voter turnouts of 77.85 per cent and 77.32 per cent were recorded till 6 pm in byelections in Vijaypur and Budhni assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday amid reports of minor clashes, officials said.

Polling was held from 7 am to 6 pm in the two constituencies.

A total of 2,760 poll officials and employees were deployed to conduct the bypolls, said the state's Chief Electoral Officer Sukhveer Singh.

When sector magistrate Yatendra Singh Chari reached a polling station in Dord village in Vijaypur constituency following complaints of voters not being allowed to exercise their franchise, some people manhandled him, but police intervened quickly, officials said.

Sheopur district Superintendent of Police Virendra Jain said no written complaint was received with regard to the incident.

Confusion prevailed at the booth for some time due to a rumour but police ensured that voting was conducted peacefully, he said.

Police prevented both state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma and state Congress chief Jitu Patwari from entering Sheopur district during the polling in Vijaypur. Both the leaders staged protests and left, party sources said.

In view of tensions, Sheopur district administration also confined, as a precautionary measure, the BJP's candidate from Vijaypur and state forest minister Ramniwas Rawat at the PWD Rest House in Vijaypur, and his Congress rival Mukesh Malhotra at Veerpur Rest House, Collector Kishore Kanyal said.

In Budhni, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his wife and two sons cast their votes. This seat in Sehore district fell vacant after sitting MLA and former chief minister Chouhan was elected to the Lok Sabha from Vidisha.

Chouhan, his wife Sadhna, and son Kunal exercised their franchise in their ancestral village Jait. Their another son Kartikey Singh Chouhan was among early voters in Budhni town.

"I would like to urge everyone to participate in this festival of democracy," Kartikey told reporters after getting his finger inked.

Ramakant Bhargava, a close aide of Chouhan, is pitted as BJP candidate against Congress' Rajkumar Patel, a former minister, in Budhni.

Bhargava voted in Shahganj town.

The bypoll to Vijaypur constituency was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat joined the BJP and was inducted in the Mohan Yadav cabinet.

Rawat, pitted against tribal leader Mukesh Malhotra of Congress in the by-election, cast his vote at his ancestral village Sunvai.

The Vijaypur constituency has 2,54,817 registered electors including 1,21,131 women.

In Budhni, there are 2,76,604 voters including 1,33,401 women.