Assembly Elections 2023: Mizoram and Chhattisgarh Commence Month-Long Voting Contest Today – Key Updates

The month-long assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and Mizoram to choose their future administration began today. Polling for the 40-member Mizoram legislature will take place in a single phase, whereas Chhattisgarh will vote on 20 seats out of the house’s 90 members in the first round.

The primary political rivals in Chhattisgarh are the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. However, these two parties are not the only ones running in Mizoram. The northeastern state serves as a bastion for the Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Zoram Peoples’ Movement (ZPM).

Elections to the Chhattisgarh Assembly 2023
Tuesday’s vote was spread across 20 seats, many of which were in the Naxal-affected Bastar division of Chhattisgarh. According to PTI, a commando of CoBRA, an elite unit of the CRPF, was wounded in an IED bomb that was reportedly sent off by Naxalites. According to a senior police source, the incident happened as a combined team of the CRPF and Commando Battalions for Resolute Action (CoBRA) 206th battalion was conducting an area domination operation from Tondamarka camp towards Elmagunda hamlet to provide security during elections.

223 candidates, 25 of whom are women, will face off in the first round of voting in front of an expected 40,78,681 voters, made up of 19,93,937 males, 20,84,675 women, and 69 third-worlders.

Of these 20, the Congress has nineteen seats, two of which it gained in by-elections. Of these 20 seats, the Congress had won 17, the BJP two, and the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh one in the 2018 Assembly elections.

While other BJP leaders spoke about religious conversion, declining law and order, and corruption, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, the Congress built its campaign on the Baghel government’s numerous welfare programs for farmers, women, tribal people, and Dalits, along with a pledge to forgive farm loans should it win back to power. Go here to read more.

Elections to the Mizoram Assembly 2023
Voting is scheduled to take place at all 1,276 polling places in Mizoram from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are forty candidates each from the major opposition party, Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM), the governing Mizo National Front (MNF), and Congress. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), making its debut, is running for 4 seats, whereas the BJP is running for 23 seats. There are twenty-seven independent candidates running for office.

The governing party, MNF, attempted to capitalize on the problem of refugees and internally displaced persons from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Manipur, and Mizo sub-nationalism out of the two main contestants, the opposition ZPM and MNF. The party also emphasized the progress that the state has made in the previous five years, despite the financial setbacks brought on by the epidemic.

The opposition emphasized the MNF government’s inability to carry on its commitments, which included building flyovers, decent roads, and the centerpiece program, Socio Economic Development (SEDP).