53.09% turnout recorded in three Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh seats till 1 pm

Raipur: At least 53.09 per cent of the electorate cast their votes till 1 pm in three constituencies, having Naxalite presence, in Chhattisgarh in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, an official said.

"Amid tight security, polling began in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituencies at 7 am and was underway smoothly. Till 1 pm, 53.09 per cent polling has been registered," the official said.

The tribal-dominated Kanker seat recorded a 60.15 per cent voter turnout, followed by Mahasamund with 52.06 per cent and Rajnandgaon with 47.82 per cent, he said.

Among the prominent voters, state assembly speaker and former chief minister Raman Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, former MP Abhishek Singh cast their votes in Kawardha town (Rajnandgaon seat), BJP candidate Santosh Pandey and his wife at Sahaspur-Lohara in Rajnandgaon, BJP candidate Rupkumari Chaudhary in Harratar village in Mahasamund, BJP candidate Bhojraj Nag and his wife at Antagarh in Kanker.

According to the police, a jawan of the Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Force deployed on poll duty allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle at a government school where he was stationed in Gariaband district under the Mahasamund seat.

A polling booth at Sivni village in Balod district (Kanker seat) was decorated like a wedding 'mandap', with a display of rituals of traditional weddings.

Brides and grooms dressed in their wedding finery cast their votes at several polling booths in the three seats.

Of the eight assembly segments in the Kanker Lok Sabha constituency, polling began in Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Keshkal and Kanker assembly segments at 7 am and will end at 3 pm, while in Sihawa, Sanjari-Balod, Daundilohara and Gunderdehi it will conclude at 6 pm.

In the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, polling in the Manpur-Mohla assembly segment will end at 3 pm, and in the seven other assembly segments, it will end at 6 pm.

The polling time in the Mahasamund constituency is 7 am to 6 pm, except in nine sensitive polling booths under the Bindranawagarh assembly segment, where it will conclude at 3 pm.

Altogether 41 candidates, including former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, are in the fray in a direct fight between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.