Voting for the by-polls to the two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat began at the Assembly complex in Gandhinagar on Friday.
State ministers Saurabh Patel, Pradeepsinh Jadeja, and BJP MLA Arunsinh Rana were among the first few to cast their votes.
Over 60 Congress MLAs who were housed at Balaram Palace Resort in Palanpur, left for Gandhinagar to cast votes for the two Rajya Sabha seats where by-polls are being held today.
As many as 69 Congress MLAs from the state were shifted to the resort, which is 150 kilometres away from Ahmedabad, to avoid horsetrading.
Senior state party leader Arjun Modhwadia had said on Thursday, "Yes, we are here to avoid horse trading and for the political training of our MLAs."
The party had earlier planned to shift the legislators to Mount Abu in Rajasthan, but the plan was changed at the last moment.
Expressing worries out possible horse trading efforts by the ruling BJP, the Congress leader attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah for promoting the malpractice in their "political laboratory".
While the BJP has fielded External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and OBC leader Juglaji Thakor, the Congress has nominated Chandrika Chudasama and Gaurav Pandya.
Voting for the two seats, which began at 9 am, will continue till 4 pm. The counting of votes will be taken up at 5 pm.
Since the election on the two seats is being held separately, a candidate needs to garner a simple 50% votes to win.
In the present scenario, each candidate needs 88 votes to secure victory.
The Congress had shifted 65 of its total 71 MLAs to a resort in Banaskantha two days back. These MLAs would arrive here for voting after 10.30 am, a party leader said.
Bypolls for the two seats from Gujarat were necessitated after Union ministers Amit Shah and Smriti Irani resigned as Rajya Sabha members following their election to the Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar and Amethi constituencies respectively in May this year.
Given its strength in the 182-member Assembly, the BJP is set to win both the seats for which voting is being held separately as per the Election Commissions (EC) notification.
Of the total 182 MLAs, 175 are qualified to exercise their franchise this time.
The BJP's strength stands at 100, followed by 71 MLAs of the Congress.
Besides, two MLAs from the Bharatiya Tribal Party, one from the NCP and an independent legislator are also eligible to cast their votes.
According to the election officials, three MLAs will not be able to cast their votes in the polls as they were disqualified for various reasons in the recent past.
Four seats are lying vacant following the resignations of the MLAs from these constituencies after their election to the Lok Sabha.