Bhopal, Nov 3 (IANS): Voting for the bypolls was underway in the 28 Assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday.

More than 63.68 lakh voters are going to decide the fate of 355 candidates in the bypolls.

This time the elections are being held in the midst of the corona epidemic, due to which adequate security arrangements have been made at all polling stations. Social distancing, sanitizers, thermal screening machines, masks, etc., have been arranged at polling booths. At the same time, the Election Commission (EC) has made arrangements to ensure that voters do not have any problem if they come in large numbers at the polling stations.

There is a lot of enthusiasm among voters in many areas to vote in the by-elections, which was observed with the large number of voters arriving at many polling stations.

Mock polls were conducted in the presence of polling agents of the candidates before the actual voting commenced. A total of 9,361 polling stations have been set up in the Assembly constituencies where voting is going on. 13,115 ballot units, 13,115 control units and 14,050 VVPATs have been made available in the districts for voting.

Tight security arrangements have been made and 48 companies of the paramilitary forces have also been deployed. In addition, 30 companies of the SAF have been deployed for additional security. Polling started at 7 a.m. in the state, which would continue till 6 p.m.