20 pc votes polled till 11 am in Sardarshahar by-election in Rajasthan

Jaipur: Nearly 20 per cent voting was registered in the first three hours of polling in the assembly by-election for Sardarshahar seat in Rajasthan's Churu district.

The voting started at 8 am amid tight security arrangements at all 295 booths. At 11 am, the voting percentage was 19.87, an official said.

A total of 2,89,843 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypoll necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma on October 9.

The Congress has fielded late Sharma's son Anil Kumar while former MLA Ashok Kumar is the BJP candidate.

Eight other candidates are in the fray: Lalchand of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), Sanwarmal Meghwal of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Parmana Ram of the Indian People's Green Party and Independent candidates Subhash Chandra, Vijay Pal Singh Sheoran, Umesh Sahu, Prem Singh and Surendra Singh Rajpurohit.

The votes will be counted on December 8.

In the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, the Congress currently has 107 MLAs, BJP 71, RLP three, CPI(M) and Bhartiya Tribal Party two each, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) one and 13 are Independents.