1st Phase Voting in Chhattisgarh’s 20 Assembly Seats, CRPF Jawan Injured in Blast

Raipur: Polling is being conducted in 20 assembly segments during the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly elections on Tuesday, a poll official said.

The voting process began at 7 am at Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta. It will end at 3 pm.

The polling for the remaining assembly constituencies, which include Pandaria, Kawardha, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Bastar, Jagdalpur, and Chitrakote started 8 am and will continue until 5 p.m.

Polling is being held under a thick security cover of police and paramilitary personnel, as most of the seats where polling is being held are in Naxalite-prone areas.

A CRPF jawan was injured on Tuesday in an IED blast triggered by Naxalites in Sukma district. He was part of a CRPF troupe involved in an area domination operation to ensure security during the polls.

In the first phase covering 20 out of the total 90 assembly seats in the state, 223 candidates, including 25 women, are in the fray and as per electoral rolls, 40,78,681 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.

Around 60,000 security personnel, 40,000 of them belonging to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and 20,000 from the state police, have been deployed for the smooth conduct of polls in the Bastar division which has 12 assembly segments, police said.

Due to security reasons, 149 polling stations in five assembly constituencies of the Bastar division have been shifted to the nearest police station and security camps.