Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and PCC head Kamal Nath engaged in a verbal spat over poll violence in the Prithvipur Assembly constituency even as the polling continued for the four by-polls in the State on Saturday.
By 6 pm, the four seats witnessed 64 per cent voting while Prithvipur which remained the bone of contention between the ruling party and the Opposition saw a maximum of 78 per cent polling till the latest reports.
There were a total of 48 candidates in the fray and there Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the Congress party of losing cool sensing a defeat in the by-polls which is why the voters were threatened and driven away from the polling booths. The BJP leaders also handed a complaint to the Election Commission in this regard.
“At several polling booths, the voters were threatened, beaten up and were turned away from polling booths and even BJP polling agents were threatened,” Chouhan said.
Nath in turn also accused the ruling BJP of threatening and intimidating voters in all the four polling areas on Saturday, adding the Congress party will win the by-polls despite unholy gimmicks of the BJP. The public was standing with the truth which is why they are supporting the Congress party and wishes to send back BJP home.
Accusing Chouhan of lying to the teeth, Nath said the booths mentioned by Chouhan were the ones where the BJP workers were intimidating voters and distributing money. Locals and Congress voters had opposed these acts, claimed Nath.
As Kamal Nath had steered the campaign for the Congress party, the BJP had gone all out sending senior leaders into the contest seen crucial for the record sheet of the Chief Minister Chouhan.
Besides the Khandwa parliamentary constituency, Assembly seats of Jobat, Prithvipur and Raigaon went to by-polls on Saturday.
Raigaon in Satna saw 66.66 per cent voting in the day. Khandwa recorded 59.72 per cent and Jobat saw 50.90 per cent voting.
In the most talked-about contest at Prithvipur, the Congress party’s Nitendra Singh Rathore is pitted against BJP’s Shishupal Yadav.
The counting of votes and announcement of results will be done on November 2.
With inputs from News18
Raut predicts Cong-led coalition coming to power in 2024 