The voting for Madhya Pradesh's all 230 assembly seats and Chhattisgarh's 70 seats--in the second phase of the election is underway.
In both of these Hindi heartland states, the main electoral fight is between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
While in Madhya Pradesh, the incumbent is the BJP, in Chhattisgarh, it is the Congress that is seeking to retain power.
Counting of votes for both states will take place on December 3, along with votes for Telangana, Rajasthan and Mizoram, where elections are taking place in this round.
Here are the live updates on Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Assembly Election 2023:
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | Union Minister and BJP candidate from Narsinghpur, Prahlad Singh Patel casts his vote at a polling booth here. pic.twitter.com/CGsGeqjFzm
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Budhni, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his wife Sadhna Singh greeted by women in Sehore.
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
Voting for the state elections is underway. pic.twitter.com/WWfwSEcJtH
#ElectionsWithNDTV | All-Women Team Manages This Polling Booth In Chhattisgarh@mickygupta84 reports #ChhattisgarhElections2023 pic.twitter.com/cQf7B03LwV
- NDTV (@ndtv) November 17, 2023
#WATCH | Chhattisgarh Elections | State Minister and Congress candidate from Durg Rural, Tamradhwaj Sahu casts his vote at a polling booth in Durg. pic.twitter.com/OCKA1P2mSP
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | BJP candidate from Indore-1, Kailash Vijayvargiya and his wife Asha Vijayvargiya cast their vote at a polling booth in Indore. pic.twitter.com/Mzzz3u6V4J
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | Congress candidate from Rau, Jitendra (Jitu) Patwari and his mother cast their votes at a polling booth in Indore. pic.twitter.com/birpfLI0hK
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
#ElectionsWithNDTV | Voting interrupted in Budhni after EVM breakdown. The machine has now been repaired.
- NDTV (@ndtv) November 17, 2023
Amritanshi reports #MadhyaPradeshElections2023 pic.twitter.com/Iz5vkEUgoN
A differently-abled voter being helped to reach the polling booth, at a polling station in Raipur.
#WATCH | Chhattisgarh Elections | A differently-abled voter being helped to reach the polling booth, at a polling station in Raipur. pic.twitter.com/eeJ8eEdX0m
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | State Congress president and party's candidate from Chhindwara, Kamal Nath casts his vote at a polling booth here. pic.twitter.com/L7nAyC2NCR
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | People show their inked fingers after casting their vote at a polling booth in Indore. pic.twitter.com/mpXZU8zUBG
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
"I would like to tell the voters to definitely cast vote...BJP will form the government in Madhya Pradesh, a double-engine government will be formed here. We will do development work like we did earlier. We will win more than 150 seats."
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | BJP candidate from Indore-1, Kailash Vijayvargiya offers prayers at his residence in Indore.
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
Polling on all 230 assembly seats of the state is underway. pic.twitter.com/n5sF37FzCE
#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh Elections | People queue up outside polling stations as they await their turn to cast a vote.
- ANI (@ANI) November 17, 2023
Visuals from a polling station in Bhopal. pic.twitter.com/S2dOe5m390
#ElectionsWithNDTV | Polling underway in Madhya Pradesh
- NDTV (@ndtv) November 17, 2023
Amritanshi Joshi reports pic.twitter.com/JrfdXXe3qt
- Voting for Madhya Pradesh's all 230 assembly seats began at 7 am today.
- The voters can cast their ballots until 6 pm, except in the Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of Balaghat district and some booths in Mandla and Dindori districts, where voting will be held until 3 pm.
- The webcasting facility has been made available at about 42,000 polling stations. Nearly 700 companies of the central forces and two lakh police personnel of the state have been deployed for security during the poll.
- The election will decide the electoral fate of over 2,500 candidates.
- Nearly 5.59 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. It includes 2.87 crore male and 2.71 crore women voters.
- There are over 5,000 booths run by women and 183 polling stations run by the disabled, officials said.
- The polls, coming nearly six months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial for both the BJP and Congress for various reasons.
The battle for Madhya Pradesh is a prestige fight for the Congress. For the BJP, which has been ruling the state since 2004 barring two years, it is a chance to prove that the Congress victory of 2018 was an aberration. Read more
- Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, two of the three heartland states drawing public attention ahead of next year's general election, vote today.
- While for Madhya Pradesh, it will be a single-phase election, Chhattisgarh is voting for a second time.
- Chhattisgarh is the one state from which the Congress has the highest hope in this round of elections.
- Not only is the state BJP in a disarray, there is massive support for Bhupesh Baghel, the Chief Minister who set the state on the path of progress, the party claims.
- The Congress is aiming to win 75 of the state's 90 seats.
- But of the two states, Madhya Pradesh with 230 seats is generating bigger interest given the twist in the backstory of this election.
- The collapse of the Congress government led by Kamal Nath in 2020 following Jyotiraditya Scindia and his 22 loyalists' walkover, placed the BJP back in power again.
- Now each party is out to prove they have been the people's choice.