Polling for by-elections to the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency and Malehra assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh began at 0800 hrs on Monday across 1,696 polling centres, amid tight security arrangements.

Official sources said more than 13 lakh voters in Vidisha and more than 1.84 lakh in Malehra will exercise their franchise till 1700 hrs through electronic voting machines in 1,480 and 216 polling centres respectively.

Vidisha seat fell vacant following the resignation of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan while Bharatiya Jan Shakti founder-president and former chief minister Uma Bharti put in her papers from Malehra.

There are ten candidates in the fray at Vidisha where the key contest is between Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and state Public Health Engineering Minister Rampal Singh and Congress nominee Rajashree Singh. The contest has been rendered triangular by the presence of BJS state president Raghunandan Sharma. The Samajwadi Party candidate is its state general secretary Munawar Saleem.

Twenty-two candidates are in the arena at Malehra where the key contest is between Kapoorchand Ghuwara (BJP) and Rekha [Images] Yadav (BJS). The Congress has fielded Jagdish Shukla and Surendra Yadav is the SP nominee.