MP bypolls: Nominations from Oct 18, redressal cell set up for Vijayapur & Budhni 

Bhopal, Oct 16 (IANS) A day after the by-elections in Madhya Pradesh's two Assembly constituencies - Vijayapur and Budhni - were announced, the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Wednesday said a redressal cell has been set up for both seats while the nominations will be filed by October 18.

He said the election process for appointing election observers in both Assembly seats has been initiated after the schedule for by-polls was announced by ECI on Tuesday.

The CEO said that the process of filing nomination papers will start from October 18 and the date for withdrawing nomination will be October 30.

More than 2.76 lakh voters in Budhni and 2.54 lakh voters in Vijayapur will vote to elect new members for the state Legislative Assembly on November 13. The results of the bypolls will be announced on November 23.

Both the national parties - BJP and Congress have initiated the process for selection of candidates in Vijayapur and Budhni. The state election management committees of both BJP and Congress have forwarded their list to the Centre, sources told IANS.

Bypolls in Budhni, the bastion of BJP stalwart Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was necessitated after he resigned from the state Assembly after being elected as Lok Sabha MP. Four-time former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Chouhan is now Union Agriculture Minister.

In Vijayapur, bypolls were necessitated after Congress MLA Ramniwas Rawat resigned from the party and also from the state Assembly. Six-time former MLA joined the ruling BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

Located in the Sheopur district of the Gwalior-Chambal region in MP, Vijaypur, which is the segment of the Morena Lok Sabha constituency, has been one of the safest seats for the Congress for the past three decades.

In the past eight Assembly elections held between 1990 and 2023, the Congress won the Vijaypur seat six times and the BJP twice (1998 and 2018).

However, in the last election held in November 2023, a close contest was witnessed between Congress' Ramniwas Rawat and BJP candidate Babulal Mevra.

Senior politician Ramniwas Rawat, however, won the election with a margin of little over 17, 000 votes. It was Rawat's sixth victory from the Vijaypur Assembly seat.

The by-election in Vijaypur is likely to witness a bipolar contest between the ruling BJP and Congress, however, what will be more interesting is that leader - Ramniwas Rawat, who won this particular seat on Congress' symbol, will be on BJP's side.

In the last Assembly elections held in November 2023, the BJP won 163 out of 230 Assembly seats in the state, while the Congress reduced 66 against 114 it had won in 2018. Of those 66, three Congress MLAs have already resigned from the party and have joined the BJP, including Ramniwas Rawat.