Voting in MP, Chhattisgarh Today; 2 Polling Officials Including a Jawan Die in MP

Bhopal: Voters in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are all set to exercise their franchise on Friday.

While Madhya Pradesh is set to make a crucial choice between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in a single-phase election, Chhattisgarh gears up for the second and final phase of polling on the day.

A CISF jawan and a polling official who were deployed in their respective assigned polling booths in Madhya Pradesh died on Thursday.

CISF jawan Janral Singh deployed on polling duty in Tikamgarh in the state suddenly fell ill and was rushed to the nearby government hospital, where he died during treatment, officials said.

The polling official, Bhim Rao (55), deployed in the Multai Nagar polling booth under the Betul Assembly constituency in MP, died of cardiac arrest, officials said.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state Congress president Kamal Nath and three Union ministers -- Narendra Singh Tomar, Prallhad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste -- and four BJP MPs are among the 2,533 candidates who are seeking election to the 230-member MP Assembly in the polls.

The political parties in the two states have turned to door-to-door canvassing to woo the voters after the campaign for the November 17 Assembly polls ended on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday, Mr Chouhan broke bread with some beneficiaries of the "Ladli Behna" scheme, billed as a game changer for the BJP in the polls in Madhya Pradesh, by visiting their homes.

“I accepted an invitation from Hemlata to visit her home to have lunch with her family,” Mr Chouhan said.

He also visited some families in the Sunhari Bag and Tila Jamalpur areas of Bhopal city to share food with their family members and discuss the scheme with them.

In the last Assembly polls, the Congress had formed the government in Madhya Pradesh by securing 114 seats, two short of the majority in the house.

The BJP had bagged 109 seats.

However, the Congress government headed by Kamal Nath lasted only 15 months because of the resignation of 22 Congress MLAs from the party and later from the House in March 2020.

They later joined the BJP. The majority of them were re-elected to the House in the by-elections. This paved the way for the BJP to return to power in the state.

In the second and final phase of polling in Chhattisgarh, 70 Assembly seats are going to polls on Friday.

Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, BJP national vice-president and former chief minister Raman Singh, state BJP president Arun Sao, who is also a Lok Sabha MP, and BJP MP Vijay Baghel are among the 958 candidates who are seeking election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly in the polls.

The first phase of polling in Chhattisgarh, in which 20 seats went to the polls, was held on November 7.

In the last Assembly elections,the  Congress stormed to power in Chhattisgarh after a gap of 15 years by securing 68 out of 90 seats.

The BJP had bagged 15 seats then.