Voting for the second and final phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections began on Tuesday amid high security.
A total of 1,079 candidates are contesting in the 72 constituencies of 19 districts in the State with an electorate of 1,54,00,596.
This is the last of the two-phase polls to the 90-member Assembly where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for the last 15 years.
The first phase of polls were conducted on November 12, 2018.
Here are the latest updates:
71.93% turnout recorded in phase 2
A turnout of 71.93% was recorded till 6 pm in the second phase of Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, and polling remained incident-free, the Election Commission says.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha says the polling percentage is likely to rise further as a number of people were still in the queue for voting. He says the polling percentage for this phase is slightly higher than that recorded during 2013 which was 71.13%.
Mr. Sinha says election was peaceful and incident-free as elaborate security arrangements were made. He adds that a number of old voters, including those over 100 years of age, also exercised their franchise and the Commission had made arrangements for them.
The EC says with the November 20 polling percentage the total average turnout for Chhattisgarh has been 74.17%, which may go up further. During the first phase of voting on November 12 for 18 seats in the Naxal-affected areas of the state, a total of 76.42% polling was recorded.
Voters still in queue even after polling time ends
Around 65% voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm in the second and final phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, an official said. The voting time ended at 5 pm, but voters were still standing in the queues, waiting for their turn at several polling booths across the State. The voting percentage is, therefore, likely to rise.
“64.8% polling has been registered till 5 pm. Although voting ended at 5 pm, voters were waiting in queue in large numbers in the polling booth premises,” the official said. “The voting percentage is expected to rise,” he added.
45.2% turnout till 3 pm
Around 45.2% voter turnout was recorded till 3 pm in 72 constituencies in the second and final phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, a poll official said.
The time of polling is from 8 am to 5 pm in all booths except two- Amamora (booth no.72) and Modh (no.76) in Bindranavgarh constituency in Gariaband district, where voting is being held from 7 am to 3 pm due to the Naxal issue, the official informed.
There were reports of technical snag in EVMs at some places which delayed the polling, he said.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has removed a presiding officer and a polling staff deployed at different polling booths in Marwahi constituency of Bilaspur district following the receipt of complaints against them.
Bilaspur Collector P Dayanand removed presiding officer of Semra polling booth, Surendra Kumar Mandavi, and a polling staff of Dhanauli polling station, Kamal Kishore Tiwari, after getting complaints against them by concerned polling agents, a statement issued by poll officials said.
“An enquiry has been ordered against Mandavi and Tiwari and they have been ousted from the polling duty,” it said.
25% voter turnout till 12.30 pm
Nearly 25.2 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise till 12.30 pm in the second and final phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly election on Tuesday, an election official said.
There were reports of technical snag in electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some places and corrective measures were taken, a poll official said.
12.54% voter turnout until 10 a.m.
12.54% per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise in the first two hours, an official said.
"Voting began at 8 a.m. and around 12.54% voter turnout was recorded till 10 a.m.," an election official said.
There were reports of technical snags in electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some places and corrective measures were taken, he said.
Two State ministers -Rajesh Munat and Premprakash Pandey - and BJP's national general secretary Saroj Pandey voted in their respective areas.
Extra vigil in Naxal-affected areas
“Voting begun at 7 a.m. in two polling booths of Bindranavagarh constituency (Gariaband district), while in the remaining 72 booths, polling started at 8 a.m.,” an election official said.
The time of polling in 72 constituencies is from 8 a.m. to 5 pm except in two polling booths — Amamora (booth no. 72) and Modh (no.76) in Bindranavgarh where polling is being held from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. due to the threat posed by Naxals, he said.
Around 1.50 lakh security personnel have been deployed across the State to ensure peaceful polling, he said.
In the second phase, districts like Gariaband, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Kabirdham, Jashpur and Balrampur are Naxal-affected areas and extra vigil was being maintained there, the official said.
The polling will take place in central and north Chhattisgarh, where 72 each from the BJP and Congress, are in the fray.
Participate in festival of democracy: Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged people of Chhattisgarh to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise.
In a tweet, he requested voters of the state to participate in large numbers in “the festival of democracy“.
On election days, the Prime Minister often takes to Twitter urging people to vote in large numbers.
Over 100 women contestants
There are 119 women contestants while the maximum number of candidates are in Raipur city south constituency where 46 nominees are in the fray.
The least number of candidates are in Bindranavagarh seat 6.
The fate of the state Assembly speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal (Kasdol constituency) and 9 ministers- Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur city south seat), Rajesh Munat (Raipur city west), Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur), Bhaiyyalal Rajwade (Baikunthpur), Ramsevak Paikra (Pratappur), Punnulal Mohile (Mungeli), Prem Prakash Pandey (Bhilai Nagar), Dayaldas Baghel (Nawagarh) and Ajay Chandrakar (Kurud) besides party state president Dharamlal Kaushik (Bilha) will be decided in this phase.
Besides, Congress state chief Bhupesh Baghel (Patan constituency), leader of opposition TS Singhdeo (Ambikapur), Congress MP from Durg Lok Sabha seat Tamradhwaj Sahu (Durg rural), former union minister Charandas Mahant (Shakti) are among the key Congress candidates who are contesting in the final phase.
This time, the coalition between Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party, former chief minister Ajit Jogi’s JCC(J) and Communist Party of India (CPI) has added another dimension to the electoral politics of Chhattisgarh which has always been dominated by the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.
A three-way fight is imminent in several seats of Bilaspur division of the state where Ajit Jogi contesting from Marwahi seat, his wife Renu Jogi (JCC-J) from Kota and his daughter-in-law Richa Jogi (BSP) from Akaltara.
Of the total number of voters, 77,53,337 are men, 76,46,382 women and 877 are from the third gender.
Of the total 72 seats, 17 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe and 9 for Scheduled caste.
A total of 19,336 polling booths have been set up for the second phase, of which 444 are sensitive booths.
VVPAT trails in booths
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) were set up in all 19336 polling stations. EVMs will have 19,336 control units and 25,640 ballot units.
Of the 19,336 polling booths, web casting facility has been provided in 2,112 booths through which Election Commission of India can monitor those polling stations, he said.
For the second phase of voting, 84,688 polling personnel have been deployed including the reserve staff.
The polling parties were dispatched to their respective polling stations, he said.
The first phase of polls was held on November 12 in eighteen constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts wherein over 76 per cent voter turnout was recorded.
The counting of votes will be held on December 11.
(With inputs from Agencies)
