Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections: First phase of polling for 20 seats begins

Voting for the first phase of the Chattisgarh Assembly Elections involving 20 seats in the states southern region began on Tuesday The voting process began at 7 am amid tight security Polling started at 7 am for ten seats which include MohlaManpur Antagarh Bhanupratappur Kanker Keshkal Kondagaon Narayanpur Dantewada Bijapur and KontaThe polling for the remaining assembly constituencies which include Pandaria Kawardha Khairagarh Dongargarh Rajnandgaon Dongargaon Khujji Bastar Jagdalpur and Chitrakote will commence at 8 am and continue until 5 pm The state of Chhattisgarh is undergoing elections in two phases with the second phase scheduled for November 1720 constituencies in Chhattisgarh which has a 90member house are set for the polls on Tuesday including 12 from the Bastar division There are a total of 223 candidates in the fray for 20 seats 5304 voting booths have been set up by the election commission for this phase There are 40 lakh 78 thousand and 681 voters in this phase Of these there are 19 lakh 93 thousand 937 male voters and 20 lakh 84 thousand 675 female votersIn this phase 13 of the 20 seats are reserved for SCSTs Overall in the state 29 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes STs and 10 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes SCs Voting is being held in constituencies that are Naxalaffected and fall in districts like Bastar Dantewada Kanker Kabeerdham and RajnandgaonIn the first phase of voting in the state 13 candidates are contesting in the Antagarh assembly constituency while 14 are in race for the Bhanupratappur 9 in Kanker 10 in Keshkal 8 in Kondagaon 9 in Narayanpur 8 in Bastar 11 in Jagdalpur 7 in Chitrakote 7 in Dantewada 8 in Bijapur 8 in Konta 11 in Khairagarh 10 in Dongargarh 29 in Rajnandgaon 12 in Dongargaon 10 in Khujji 9 in MohlaManpur 16 in Kawardha and 14 in PandariyaNotable figures such as former Chief Minister Raman Singh is seeking reelection from his seat in Rajnandgaon and State Minister Kawasi Lakhma who is running again from Konta where he the sitting MLA In 2018 the Congress won 17 of the 20 seats that will go to the polls in Phase 1 BJP had won two seats while Ajit Jogis party had won oneIn 2023 the Congress replaced six of the sitting MLAs in this phase while in the seat of Bahnupratappur the wife of late MLA Manoj Mandavi Savita Mandavi will be contesting As per the data from the Election Commission of India in the election to the 90member assembly a total of 20380079 crore voters including 19839 service voters will be able to exercise their franchiseThere are also 790 gender voters in the state and 160955 persons with disabilities voters as per the data shared by the poll body Chhattisgarh has 263829 electors in the age group of 1819 There are 186215 senior citizens above the age of 80 in the state The poll panel said there are 24109 polling stations in the state as compared to 23667 in 2018To conduct free and fair elections in the state Central Armed Police Forces CAPFs have been deployed to augment the local police force in the state Kanker Collector Priyanka Shukla said This time tight security arrangements have been made in the most Naxalaffected areas while some polling centres will also be monitored with dronesPolling teams reached all the polling stations of Kanker district on Monday Two special rooms have been prepared in Kanker and Antagarh Teams have been sent from Kanker to Bhanupratappur assembly constituencies which are the most Naxalaffected areas According to the Chief Electoral Officer Chhattisgarh a total of 223 candidates in the 20 assembly constituencies of the first phase of which 198 are men and 25 are women will contest the polls on TuesdayThe Commission has also directed that to the extent possible at least one polling station each managed exclusively by women and persons with disabilities shall be set up in every Assembly constituency in the state Moreover the Commission has directed that at least one polling station per district shall be managed by the polling teams consisting of the youngest eligible employee of that district read the ECI notificationThere shall be such randomization for police personnel and home guards who are deployed at the polling stations on the poll day as per the ECI The counting of votes is scheduled for December 3This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever