Madhya Pradesh votes for 8 Lok Sabha seats

Bhopal: Voting was underway in Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Guna, Sagar, Vidisha, Bhopal and Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituencies in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday, with the Congress and the BJP being the main contestants.

The state poses a major challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it had lost power after 15 years in Assembly elections last year. There are 138 candidates and 1.44 crore voters in Sunday's exercise.

Voting began at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m.

The issues of farm and rural distress are dominant. The constituency of Bhopal is the most keenly watched as former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh of the Congress is in the fray against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur of BJP who is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

In Guna, Jyotiraditya Scindia from Congress is seeking another term. He has been representing this Lok Sabha seat in Parliament since 2002. He is up against K.P. Yadav from the BJP. Yadav was Scindia's aide till January 2018.

The Morena, the birthplace of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a BJP stronghold, the party has fielded Narendra Singh Tomar against Congress' Ram Niwas Rawat.

Sandhya Rai of BJP is pitted against Devasish Jararia of Congress from Bhind. Vivek Sejwalkar of BJP is taking on Ashok Singh of Congress in Gwalior.