Voting on 70 constituencies under the second phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections is set to take place on November 17 amid heightened security keeping in mind an attempt by Naxals before the first phase to disturb the conduct of balloting by triggering an IED blast, sources in central security agencies said.
On the eve of first-phase polling on November 7, an IED exploded in the Bastar region, threatening to disrupt the electoral process. Three people, including two Election Commission officials, were injured in the incident.
There are about 18,000 polling booths in the second phase of election in Chhattisgarh. During the first phase, the security agencies had spun three-layer net around over 600 polling booths in the Bastar division. Twelve assembly seats in the division were protected by over 40,000 personnel from Central Armed Police Forces and 20,000 were state policemen. The first phase of voting saw 70.87% polling.
Meanwhile, a report by non-profits Chhattisgarh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms has said that 10 per cent of 953 contestants in the second phase of election in the state have declared criminal cases against themselves. The ruling Congress has the maximum number of 13 candidates who have declared criminal cases. The BJP has 12, the AAP has 12 and the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) has 11.
On the eve of voting on November 7, Maoists had exploded an IED in Kanker district at a time when four polling parties were heading towards their booth in Rengaghati Rangagondi under Antagarh assembly constituency.
The incident took place just before sunset and left two election officials and a BSF personnel injured. The attack also forced an emergency review meeting of the CRPF brass and two additional companies of the paramilitary force’s CoBRA force have been air-lifted to the state for deployment near hypersensitive polling booths.
The number of total booths in the state have gone up to 23,000 this year as compared to 2018. This is, primarily, due to the addition of 432 now polling booths in the state after areas under Left wing extremism were freed from the control of rebels. The state with 2.03 crore voters has 39 seats—out of a total 90—reserved for SC/ST candidates.
In 2018, the Congress won 68 seats, wiping out the BJP which could manage only 15 seats. Others bagged 7 seats. The Congress had got 43% of the vote share as against 33% of the BJP. In 2013 Assembly elections, the BJP had won 49 seats while the Congress got 39 seats.
The BJP managed to get 41% of the vote share while the Congress got 40.3% vote share.
Despite being edged out by the Congress in the 2018 Assembly election, the BJP had managed to put up a good show in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Out of the 90 Assembly segments, under the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies, the BJP managed to win 66 and the Congress won 24. Also, the vote share of the BJP jumped to 51.4% from 33% that it registered in the 2018 Assembly election. The Congress’ vote share in the parliamentary election dipped marginally to 41.5% from 43% that it had managed to get in the Assembly polls that were held six months before the Lok Sabha contest.
