Polling begins on 3 Chhattisgarh seats days after 29 Naxalites killed

Raipur: Polling began Friday morning in Naxal-affected Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituencies in Chhattisgarh in the second phase of general elections.The polling comes days after 29 Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Kanker district on April 16.

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.

Of the eight assembly segments in Kanker Lok Sabha constituency, polling began in Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Keshkal and Kanker assembly segments at 7 am and will end at 3 pm, an election official said.

In four other assembly segments, Sihawa, Sanjari-Balod, Daundilohara and Gunderdehi, the polling began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm.

In Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, except Manpur-Mohla assembly segment where polling is being held from 7 am to 3 pm, polling in all other seven assembly segments began at 7 am and 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 Bindranawagarh assembly segment, where it is being held from 7 am to 3 pm.

In Kanker Lok Sabha constituency, extra vigil is being maintained by security forces in view of the Naxal threat, the official said.

Of the 41 candidates, 15 are in Rajnandgaon, 17 in Mahasamund and 9 in Kanker Lok Sabha seat. There are 52,84,938 eligible voters, including 26,05,350 men, 26,79,528 women and 60 members of the third gender in the three seats.

There are 7,363 service voters, 51,306 'divyang' (differently-abled) voters, 1,62,624 voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years, 16,643 in the age group of above 85 years of age and 498 voters above 100 years of age.

Altogether 6,567 polling booths have been set up in the constituencies and of them, 330 will be 'Sangwari' (managed by women personnel) booths, 120 'adarsh' polling booths while 28 booths will be managed by 'diyangjan' and 117 by youth.

While 23 polling booths have been categorised as vulnerable, 458 have been marked as critical, the official said.

A total of 32,907 polling personnel have been deployed for the second phase.

Helicopters were used to ferry 72 polling personnel for 9 polling booths of remote and sensitive areas of Kanker seat and 15 polling personnel in two polling booths of Mahasamund seat on Wednesday.

The 6,556 polling teams were dispatched to their destinations through buses on Thursday, the official said.

Voting for all the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh is being held in three phases. Naxalite-hit Bastar (ST) constituency witnessed polling in the first phase on April 19. Seven seats will go to polls during the last phase in Chhattisgarh on May 7.

The high-profile Rajnandgaon seat is seeing a contest between BJP MP Santosh Pandey and Congress' Bhupesh Baghel, former chief minister and incumbent MLA.

The ruling BJP has dropped its sitting MPs in Mahasamund and Kanker seats and fielded former MLAs Rupkumari Chaudhary and Bhojraj Nag there respectively.

Opposition Congress has fielded former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu in Mahasamund and senior leader Biresh Thakur in Kanker seat. Thakur lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Kanker.

In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won 9 seats while Congress bagged two seats in Chhattisgarh.

The high-octane campaign for the second phase of polls in Chhattisgarh saw acrimonious exchanges between the main rivals BJP and Congress over issues like corruption, Constitution and poll promises of the two parties.

The saffron party's electioneering for the second phase saw rallies by prominent leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while for the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led the campaigning.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge did not make an appearance in the campaign for the second phase of general elections in the state.

Modi and Shah targeted Congress over its leaders’ remarks on the Constitution and on that party’s leaders skipping the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who addressed two rallies, mounted a counter offensive claiming her party was endeavouring to protect the interest of the poor while the BJP-led Central Government wanted to change the Constitution and curtail people's rights.