Voting for 6 LS seats, Chhindwara Assembly bypoll on April 29

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Bhopal: Polling in six Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh and by-election to Chhindwara Assembly constituency where Chief Minister Kamal Nath is in the fray will be held on Monday. Lok Sabha constituencies of Sidhi, Shahdol, Jabalpur, Mandla, Balaghat and Chhindwara will go to polls in the first phase of general elections in the central state.

Total 108 candidates are in the fray, including maximum 26 in Sidhi, followed by Balaghat-23, Jabalpur-22, Chhindwara-14, Shahdol-13 and Mandla-10. Nine candidates are trying their luck in the Chhindwara Assembly bypoll.

Altogether 1.05 crore people, comprising 51.55 lakh women, 53.90 lakh men 178 third gender persons are eligible to vote, state chief electoral officer V L Kantha Rao said, adding that 9,864 services voters will cast postal ballots. Rao said barring the Naxal-affected Baiher, Lanjhi and Paraswada Assembly segments under Balaghat parliamentary seat, polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm.

In Naxal-affected areas, polling will be held from 7 am to 4 pm, he added. Rao said there are 2,515 booths falling under critical category out of 13,491 polling stations set up in these six parliamentary seats, adding that 2700 booths would be monitored through webcasting and CCTVs. He said 44,200 security personnel, including 85 companies of central armed forces and 38 companies of state armed forces, will be deployed in addition to 60,000 polling staff in the first phase. Rao said 645 all women polling stations have been set up while 27 booths would be managed by physically challenged employees and officials.

Of the 9000 vehicles being used in this phase, 5800 are equipped with GPS mechanism for easy monitoring, Rao said, adding that two IAF helicopters have also been arranged for Naxal affected Mandla and Balaghat districts. In 2014, riding on the 'Modi wave', the BJP won five of these six Lok Sabha seats.

Congress veteran Kamal Nath had won from his bastion Chhindwara, where his son Nakul Nath is the party candidate this time for the Lok Sabha polls. State BJP president Rakesh Singh and former Union minister and BJP's tribal face Faggan Singh Kulaste are contesting from Jabalpur and Mandla, respectively.

After taking over as chief minister following Congress' victory in the last year's Assembly polls, Kamal Nath needs to get elected to the state Legislature within six months. Congress MLA Deepak Saxena quit from the Chhindwara Assembly seat to make a way for him. In the last leg of electioneering for the six Lok Sabha seats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rallies in Sidhi and Jabalpur whereas Congress chief Rahul Gandhi addressed public meetings in Shahdol and Jabalpur. BJP chief Amit Shah also addressed a public meeting in Chhatarpur. Kamal Nath and his predecessor and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan also campaigned extensively for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state. In 2014, the BJP won 27 out of the total 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Later, the Congress reclaimed Ratlam seat in a by-election, taking its tally to three. The Congress is hoping to do better in the polls after ending the BJP's 15-year reign in the state last year, while the saffron party is hoping to repeat its 2014 performance. Lok Sabha elections in MP will be held in four phases on April 29, and May 6, 12 and May 19, and counting of votes will take place on May 23.