CHENNAI: The voting for Madhya Pradesh's all 230 assembly seats and Chhattisgarh's 70 seats--in the second phase is being held today.
While in Madhya Pradesh, the incumbent is the BJP, in Chhattisgarh, it is the Congress that is seeking to retain power.
In MP, voting will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, in Baihar, Lanji, and Parswara assembly seats of Balaghat district and some booths of Mandla and Dindori districts, voting will be held till 3 p.m.
In Chhattisgarh, the BJP, which ruled the state continuously between 2003 and 2018, is seeking to replace the Congress government led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Bahgel.
The first phase of polling in the state for 20 seats was held on November 7. Both parties claimed to have done well in the first phase. The Congress had a good strike rate in these 70 seats in the 2018 elections, having won 51 of them.
Polling parties have reached their designated polling stations and 958 candidates are in the fray in this phase.
Over 18,000 polling stations have been set up in the state for voting in this phase. Out of these, 727 are 'Sangwari' booths where women polling personnel have been deployed.