Stage set for bypolls in two assembly segments in MP tomorrow

All arrangements have been made for tomorrow's bypoll to Ater and Bandhavgarh assembly seat, office of the Madhya Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) said.
Tight security arrangements have been put in place, said the office of CEO.
The byelections will be held between 7 AM and 5 PM and 1,270 EVMs will be deployed at various polling stations.
VVPAT machines are going to be attached to all the EVMs for making the election process more transparent, the CEO's office PRO Pralay Shrivastava said.
In the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines, the voters see the slip on the screen for seven seconds, which would be an acknowledgement receipt for the party they voted for in the election.

The slip drops in a box but the voter cannot take it home.

Apart from MP police, 10 companies of central armed police force have been deployed at Ater in Bhind district whereas 2 companies of para military forces have been stationed in Bandhavgarh in Umaria district.
The counting of votes will take place on April 13.
Twenty-one candidates in Ater and five in Bandhavgarh have thrown their hats in the election arena.
In Ater, the byelection is necessitated following the death of Congress leader Satyadev Katare while the Bandhavgarh (ST) seat in Umari district fell vacant as incumbent MLA Gyan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha in November last year.

A tough fight is expected to take place between Congress candidate Hemant Katare and his BJP rival Arvind Singh Bhandoria in Ater, while the situation appears to be same in Bandhavgarh where BJP nominee Shivnarayan Singh and his rival Congress candidate Savitri Singh are in the fray.
More than 2.11 lakh voters are eligible to vote in Ater, while more than 2 lakh electorate are registered in Bandhavgarh.