AUTO REFRESH ON Voting underway in Mizoram, visuals of people queuing up to vote at a polling station in Kanhmun #MizoramElections pic.twitter.com/VykFjNTYEm — ANI (@ANI) November 28, 2018
Voting for Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram Assembly elections will start at 8 am today. The Congress is trying to wrest Madhya Pradesh from the three-term holder Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while in Mizoram, the BJP is hoping to break the ground and play the kingmaker, if not the king, by supporting regional parties in today's election. The battle of ballots in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram is just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls slated in the first half of 2019. Results of the Assembly polls 2018 will be declared on December 12.
MP will vote to elect a 230-member Assembly, for which as many as 2,899 candidates, including 1,094 independents, are in the fray. BJP is contesting all the 230 seats, while the Congress has fielded 229 candidates, leaving one seat, Jatara in Tikamgarh district, for its ally -- Sharad Yadav's Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in office since 2005, is seeking re-election from Budhni in Sehore district. The BSP has fielded 227 candidates, while the SP is contesting on 52 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), contesting the Madhya Pradesh elections for the first time, has fielded 208 candidates.
Elections to the 40-member Assembly in Mizoram, which has a population of about 1 million, is significant for the BJP, which considers it to be the 'final frontier' in the region. The Congress and the MNF have fielded 40 candidates each, while the BJP is contesting in 39 seats. The Zoram Peoples Movement (ZPM), an alliance formed by two political parties and four groups, is contesting in 35 seats.