Assembly Elections 2023 LIVE: Voting begins in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in high-stakes battle

Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections 2023 LIVE Updates: The voting is set to take place for Madhya Pradesh’s all 230 assembly seats and Chhattisgarh’s 70 seats–in the second phase of the election. In both 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. In both states, the BJP has not projected anyone as a chief ministerial candidate and has banked heavily on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the election campaign. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has ruled for almost 18 of the past 20 years. In Chhattisgarh, the saffron party, which ruled the state continuously between 2003 and 2018, is seeking to replace the Congress government led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Bahgel. In the run-up to the election, political parties in both states left no stone unturned to woo voters during the campaigning. It should be noted here that security has also been heightened in both states in order to tackle any untoward incident. The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on December 3.