MP Bypoll Results 2018: Counting of votes for Kolaras, Mungaoli seats on Wednesday

Bhopal: The counting of votes for by-elections to the two key assembly constituencies - Mungaoli and Kolaras - in Madhya Pradesh will be held on Wednesday.

Bypolls to Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly constituencies, which were held on Saturday, recorded 77% and 70% turnout respectively.

Assembly bypolls to two seats in Madhya Pradesh is being seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. 

Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats have seen high-voltage campaigns from the ruling BJP and the Congress that's keen on retaining the two seats. 

During the polling on Saturday, minor clashes between political workers were reported from some areas, an Election Commission official said.

While Ashoknagar district collector KVS Choudary said 77.05% polling was recorded in Mungaoli, Shivpuri collector Tarun Rathi told PTI that the turn-out in Kolaras was 70.4%.

The outcome of the two by-elections is being watched keenly as a possible pointer to people’s mood ahead of the Assembly elections in the BJP-ruled state, due later this year.

The Congress has fielded Mahendra Singh Yadav from Kolaras and Brijendra Singh Yadav from Mungaoli, while the BJP has fielded Baisahab Yadav from Mungaoli and Devendra Jain from Kolaras.

Overall, 13 candidates are in the fray in Mungaoli and 22 in Kolaras. 

The bypolls were necessitated due to the death of Congress’s Mungaoli MLA Mahendra Singh Kalukheda and Kolaras MLA Ram Singh Yadav.

Both seats are in the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, represented by Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Both MP Chief Minister Chouhan and Scindia have led hectic campaigns for their parties in these bypolls. 

Earlier this month, Chouhan announced a few sops for farmers to blunt the Congress criticism over farm unrest.

In a first, the BJP also deployed Yashodhara Raje Scindia, minister for sports and youth welfare in the Shivraj cabinet, and Jyotiraditya’s aunt, to the campaign, in a departure from the Scindia dynasty’s tradition of not directly campaigning against each other.