Bhopal, Apr 12: About 55.90 per cent of the nearly 11 lakh electorate exercised their franchise today for the Lok Sabha byelection in Madhya Pradesh's Betul constituency, official sources said.

According to the Chief Election Officer's office, no untoward incident was reported during polling. Betul parliamentary constituency comprises eight assembly segments. Highest turnout of 59 per cent was reported in Amla segment, Betul (56.6), Masaud (56), Bhainsdehi (55), Ghodadongri (54.6), Multai (54), Harda (54) and Timarni (54).

Polling under tight security was held peacefully in 1219 polling booths, including 331 identified as sensitive, official sources said.

Polling began on a dull note and 14 percent of the electorate in Ghodadongri Assembly segment had cast their votes by 1100 hours, while lowest turnout of 7 percent during the period was reported in Multai area, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the candidates contesting the elections are confident of the electorate voting for them. Samajwadi party leader Sunilam has said that the BJP workers attempted to capture the polling booths and this affected polling.

At the same time, Hemant Khandelwal of the BJP claimed that the disinformation campaign by Congress men will not influence the voters much and that they would vote for the BJP as usual.

Congress candidate, Sukhdev Pansi is confident of win saying the electorate throughout the constituency have supported the Congress party.