Bhopal, Aug 30 (IANS): The Budhni Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh's Sehore district – the bastion of four-time former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is now the Union Agriculture Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet -- is likely to witness a close contest between the state's ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in the upcoming by-election.

The bypoll has been necessitated after Shivraj Singh Chouhan was elected as an MP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Though the bypoll date is yet to be announced by the Election Commission of India, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have started their preparations.

According to political observers, the BJP seems to be not "quite worried" as it has retained Budhni seat since 2006.

However, one would be waiting to see whom the party picks as Shivraj Singh Chouhan's "potential replacement" once the schedule for the bypoll is announced.

The Congress, meanwhile, began executing its plan on the ground "extensively".

According to sources, the Congress has been viewing the absence (as candidate) of BJP stalwart and former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan (who won five times from Budhni) as an opportunity to make an attempt to wrest this particular seat from the BJP.

The party has already started the process of holding meetings in all 363 booths.

The Congress has already replaced Raghogarh MLA Jaivardhan Singh (son of ex-Chief Minister and senior party leader Digvijaya Singh) with the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Umang Singhar as in-charge of the bypoll in Budhni seat.

The Congress is now planning to deploy a 15-member team comprising senior leaders and former ministers in the next two weeks.

In the last Assembly election held in November 2023, Congress candidate Vikram Mastal Sharma received a total of 59,977 votes against BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan who received 1,64,951 votes.

The BJP bagged 163 seats while the Congress got 66 seats.