Chhattisgarh Assembly Election: Voting Begins In First Phase (image-twitter/ECISVEEP)
The first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly election is being held today, November 7. Voting began Tuesday morning under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel. Voting will take place across 20 constituencies in the first phase.
Out of 20 seats, 12 seats are reserved for scheduled tribes and one for scheduled caste.
In the initial voting phase, the fate of 223 candidates, including 25 women will be decided. Polling in 10 of the 20 assembly constituencies began at 7 am and will end at 3 pm evening. While in the remaining 10 polling will begin at 8 am and will end at 5 pm. The second phase of the election will be held on November 17.
In the first phase, 20 of the 90 assembly seats will be decided. 40,78,681 voters are eligible to vote in the election. In this majority are women with the count of 20,84,675 while men are 19,93,937. There are 69 third gender voters in the state, reports the PTI.
In the first phase, 5,304 election booths are set up and 25,249 polling personnel are deployed.
The 10 constituencies in which polling starts at 7 am due to Naxal threats are- Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Konta.
The remaining 10 constituencies are – Khairgarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Bastar, Jagdalpur, Chitrakot, Pandariya and Kawardha.
An official has said that around 1 lakh security personnel are deployed for the safe conduct of election. In the Bastar division which has 12 assembly segments, around 60,000 security personnel, 40,000 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and 20,000 state police are deployed. And 140 polling stations in the Bastar region are shifted near to the police stations and security camps due to security reasons.
As part of tightening the security, Naxal activities in the region will be monitored with the help of drone and helicopters. Bomb disposal teams and dog squads will also be in action when required.
Key candidates include former chief minister Dr Raman Singh from BJP and Mohammed Akbar from Congress.
