Bhopal, Oct 15 (PTI) Upcoming byelections to Budhni and Vijaypur assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh pose a fresh challenge for the Congress which had lost the last bypoll from Amarwara in Chhindwara district, sources said.
The byelections to Budhni, earlier represented by BJP veteran and Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Vijaypur, will be held on November 13 and votes will be counted on November 23.
The Budhni seat in Sehore district fell vacant after sitting MLA and ex-CM Chouhan was elected to Lok Sabha from the Vidisha constituency. The contest for the Vijaypur segment, situated in Sheopur district, became necessary after senior Congress leader Ramniwas Rawat resigned and joined the BJP.
Rawat was subsequently inducted into the Madhya Pradesh cabinet headed by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
“With the ECI announcing the bypolls schedule, the election process will start with the issuance of a gazette notification on October 18,” a poll official said on Tuesday.
The last date for filing nominations for the bypolls is October 25 and scrutiny of forms will be done on October 28. The deadline for the withdrawal of candidature is October 30.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s election committee held a meeting here on Monday to scrutinise candidates for the two seats assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh where by-elections are slated to be held.
A senior BJP leader said the party’s election committee had cleared Rawat’s name for the Vijaypur seat and approved the names of former MP Ramakant Bhargava, Raghunath Singh Bhati, Ravi Malviya, and former CM Chouhan’s son Kartikeya for the Budhni seat.
“The names have almost been finalised and will be sent to the party’s central election committee, which will decide on them,” he had told PTI.
Notably, BJP’s Kamlesh Shah had won the Amarwara (ST) seat by more than 3,200 votes, defeating his nearest Congress rival Dheeran Shah Invati in July. PTI MAS NSK
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