Shimla, Nov 30 (IANS): Polling in Himachal Pradesh's two assembly seats began Wednesday amidst tight security.
Despite cold conditions, electors in the Renuka (reserved) and Nalagarh constituencies could be seen standing outside polling stations even before voting started at 8 a.m.
"Polling begins smoothly and there is no report of any delay in starting the poll process," state chief electoral officer Narinder Chauhan told IANS here.
The main contest is between the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The byelections have been necessitated by the death of former BJP minister and three times MLA H.N. Saini (Nalagarh) and six times Congress MLA Prem Singh (Renuka).
The Congress has fielded Prem Singh's son Vinay Kumar from Renuka against BJP's Hirday Ram.
From Nalagarh BJP's candidate is Gurnam Kaur, wife of late Saini, while Lakhwinder Rana is the Congress nominee, who had faced the defeat twice from Nalagarh.
Gurnam Kaur and Kumar are banking on sympathy wave.
For the BJP, which is going to complete four years in power next month, the stakes are high in the bypolls, especially in Renuka, which has traditionally been a Congress bastion.
Political observers said the election outcome would be an indication of the popularity of the BJP ahead of the 2012 assembly elections.
A total of 1,20,253 voters, including 194 electors aged 90 or more, will cast their votes.
The counting of votes will be held Dec 4.