Bhopal, Oct 15 (IANS): By-elections to Madhya Pradesh's Budhni and Vijaypur Assembly seats will be conducted on November 13 and the votes will be counted on November 23, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday.

Budhni Assembly seat in Sehore district is the bastion of BJP veteran and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who won it six times, including in November 2023.

The seat fell vacant after four-time former MP CM Chouhan won the Lok Sabha election from Vidisha, under which the Budhni Assembly seat falls, earlier this year.

In the 2023 assembly elections, Chouhan won from Budhni by a margin of more than 1.05 lakh votes against Congress candidate and TV actor Vikram 'Mastal' Sharma. Chouhan had received a total of 1,64,951 votes, or 70.7 per cent vote share while Congress candidate Mastal could secure a mere 59,977 votes.

Chouhan was elected MLA for the first time from Budhni in 1990, but had resigned from the Assembly after winning the Lok Sabha by-election from Vidisha in 1991. His second inning from his home turf began after he replaced Babulal Gaur as Chief Minister in 2005. Chouhan contested a by-poll from Budhni in 2006 and since then he won as many as four consecutive Assembly elections until 2023.

The Congress won the Budhni seat for te last time in 1998.

This time, in the absence of stalwart Chouhan from the contest, the Congress will try to wrest the seat from the BJP, but this is not going to be easy.

Vijayapur in Sheopur district had fallen vacant following the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Ramnivas Rawat ahead of the April-May LS polls. He subsequently joined the BJP and at present, is the Forest Minister in Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's cabinet. Rawat is likely to contest the by-election from Vijayapur on the BJP's symbol this time.