Elections for the Chhattisgarh Assembly: The first round of voting for 20 seats starts

Tuesday’s vote, which included 20 seats in Chattisgarh’s southern area, started at 7 a.m. under heavy security.

Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Konta are among the places in the Chhattisgarh area conducting polls.

The polls for the remaining assembly constituencies—Jagdalpur, Khujji, Bastar, Pandaria, Kawardha, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, and Dongargaon—will start at 8 a.m. and run until 5 p.m.

Two rounds of elections are being held in the state of Chhattisgarh, with the second phase set for November 17.

There are 223 contenders vying for 20 seats in all. The electoral commission has put up 5304 polling stations for this round. In this phase, there are 40 lakh, 78 thousand, and 681 voters. There are 19 lakh, 93,000 male voters and 20 lakh, 84 thousand, 675 female voters out of them.

Thirteen of the twenty slots in this phase are set aside for SC/STs. Ten seats are set aside for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 29 seats are set aside for Scheduled Tribes (STs) overall in the state.

Voting is taking place in areas including Bastar, Dantewada, Kanker, Kabeerdham, and Rajnandgaon that are devastated by the Naxals.

Thirteen candidates are running in the state’s first round of elections: thirteen in the Antagarh assembly constituency; nine in Kanker; ten in Keshkal; eight in Kondagaon; nine in Narayanpur; eight in Bastar; eleven in Jagdalpur; seven in Chitrakote; seven in Dantewada; eight in Bijapur; eight in Konta; eleven in Khairagarh; ten in Dongargarh; twelve in Dongargaon; 29 in Rajnandgaon; twelve in Dongargaon; ten in Khujji; nine in Mohla-Manpur; sixteen in Kawardha and fourteen in Pandariya.

Notable individuals include State Minister Kawasi Lakhma, who is running again from Konta, where he is the current MLA, and former Chief Minister Raman Singh, who is standing for reelection from his seat in Rajnandgaon.

Of the 20 seats up for election in Phase 1, 17 were won by the Congress in 2018. Ajit Jogi’s party had won one seat, while the BJP had taken two.

In this phase, the Congress replaced six of the current MLAs in 2023. Savita Mandavi, the late MLA Manoj Mandavi’s widow, is running for the seat of Bahnupratappur.

According to information provided by the Election Commission of India, 2,03,80,079 crore voters—including 19,839 service voters—will be allowed to cast ballots in the election for the 90-member parliament.

Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) have been sent in to supplement the state’s local police force in order to hold free and fair elections.

“This time, tight security arrangements have been made in the most Naxal-affected areas, and some polling places will also be monitored with drones,” Kanker Collector Priyanka Shukla said.

On Monday, poll workers made their way to every voting place in the Kanker district.

Kanker and Antagarh have created two unique chambers. Teams have been sent from the most Naxal-affected regions, Kanker, to the assembly constituency of Bhanupratappur.

A total of 223 candidates—198 males and 25 women—will run for office in the first phase’s 20 assembly seats on Tuesday, according to the Chief Electoral Officer of Chhattisgarh.

Additionally, the Commission has mandated that, to the greatest degree feasible, a minimum of one polling place be established in each state Assembly seat, with management limited to women and people with disabilities.

December 3 is when the votes are supposed to be counted.