Raipur: Voting for the bypoll to the Naxal-affected Dantewada Assembly constituency began on Monday morning amid tight security. The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi in a Naxal attack in April. Polling began at 7 am and it will go on till 3 pm, an election official said here. A total of 1,88,263 voters, including 89,747 men and 98,876 women, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the constituency, which has 273 polling stations.

A massive security blanket of around 18,000 personnel, including those from paramilitary forces, and drones have been thrown around the Dantewada Assembly segment, which is part of the insurgency-hit Bastar region, for conducting peaceful polling, a police official said.