Three Lok Sabha seats of Chhattisgarh — Rajnandgaon, Kanker and Mahasumund — witnessed good initial turnout on Thursday.
According to PTI, a bout 60 per cent of electorate cast their votes till 3 p.m. in three Maoist-hit Lok Sabha constituencies.
“The voter turnout of 60 per cent was recorded in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund seats till 3 p.m. and no violent incident has been reported from the region so far,” Joint Chief Electoral Officer D.D. Singh said, adding that polling in the seven insurgency-hit Assembly constituencies in these seats has concluded at 3 p.m.
Polampalli polling center in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, where the poling could not take place on April 10, due to technical problems in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), is also went to polls on Thursday.
Maoists have appealed to the people to “boycott” the polling and have called for a bandh in some parts of Kanker and Mahasumund seats. Heavy security deployment has been made in Kanker district for Thursday’s poll.
Abhishekh Singh, the son of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, is contesting from Rajnandgaon seat and former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi is the Congress candidate from Mahasamund Loksabha seat.
About 30 per cent of electorate cast their votes in the first four hours of polling in three Naxal-hit constituencies of Chhattisgarh during the second phase of Lok Sabha election in the state.
Earlier on Thursday, amid high security, polling began in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund from 7 am and around 30 per cent turnout had been recorded till 11 am , joint chief electoral officer DD Singh told PTI .
No incidence of violence has been reported from the region so far, he said.
BJP candidate from Rajnandgaon seat Abhishek Singh and his father and Chief Minister Raman Singh cast their votes in their hometown Kawardha.
Congress candidate from Rajnandgaon seat, Kamleshwar Verma, also exercised his franchise.
Besides, BJP nominees Vikram Usendi (Kanker) and Chandulal Sahu (Mahasamund) also cast their votes.
Meanwhile, re—polling is underway at Polampalli booth of Bastar constituency where voting could not be held on April 10 due to disruption by Naxals, Singh said.
The fate of 50 candidates, including five women, will be decided during today’s polling by 45,56,051 voters, of which 22,78,646 are men and 22,77,405 women.
Maximum number of candidates are fielded in Mahasamund (27), followed by Rajnandgaon (13) and Kanker (10).
A total of 6,114 polling booths, including 2,452 regarded as critical, have been set up for the three seats — Rajnandgaon (2,211) Mahasamund (1,937) and Kanker (1,781)— where 29,347 employees have been deployed.
As many as 56 web cameras and 1,258 digital/video cameras have been installed at polling stations to monitor the polling process, Singh said.
From Rajnandgaon seat, Raman Singh’s son Abhishek Singh (BJP) is pitted against Congress’ Janpad member Kamleshwar Verma, who belongs to Lodhi community.
Mahasamund seat will see close battle between former Chief Minister and Congress nominee Ajit Jogi and BJP’s sitting MP Chandulal Sahu.
At Kanker seat, BJP denied ticket to its sitting MP Sohan Potai and fielded sitting MLA and former minister Vikram Usendi, while Phoolo Devi Netam is the Congress nominee from the seat.
(with PTI inputs)
