Naxal threats seem to have done little impact on the voter turnout in Bastar as 40 per cent polling was recorded after voting came to a close at 3 pm on Monday.
Voting in the first phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections began on Monday amid high security where Raman Singh-led BJP government is aiming for a hat-trick against the Congress. A large number of security force personnel have been deployed across the state to ensure peaceful polling. The polling parties had left to their destination on Sunday itself, an official had said.
The Chief Minister and his three ministers, besides kin of the victims of Jiram valley Naxal attack are among the candidates whose fate are be decided in Monday's voting in 18 assembly constituencies in the worst Naxal-hit regions of Bastar and Rajnandgaon.
A total of 143 candidates are contesting from 12 constituencies in Bastar division and six constituencies of Rajnandgaon district with an electorate of 29,33,200 in the first of the two-phase polls to the 90-member assembly in the state.
"The voter turnout has been good, till 9 am it was around 14%, it reached 25% by 11 am," said KC Dev Senapati, District Collector of Dantewada. However by the end of the voting, 40 per cent turnout was recorded inspite of intense Naxal boycott and threats, said ETV sources.
WHO FIGHTS WHOM?
Chief Minister Raman Singh is contesting from Rajnandgaon constituency. His main rival is Congress' Alka Mudliyar, wife of slain Congress leader Uday Mudliyar. Devati Karma, wife of Mahendra Karma, has been fielded from Dantewada-ST seat.
"Raman Singh is contesting polls on the power of money and will definitely lose," said Alka Mudaliar.
"In Bastar, voting started at 7 am at some places in Bastar. There has been voting upto 30% this time. Women have come out in comparatively large numbers early morning to vote. Youth and women will play a crucial role in increasing the voter turnout this time," said Raman Singh.
Tribal welfare Minister Kedar Kashyap had won the Narayanpur segment in 2008 poll against Congress candidate Rajnuram Netam by a huge margin of 21, 635 votes and this time the main opposition has fielded a low profile party worker Chandan Kashyap from this seat against him.
Sports minister Lata Usendi had previously defeated Congressman Mohan Markam from Kondagon seat in a close contest by 2771 votes. Markam has been provided a second chance from this seat.
Forest Minister Vikram Usendi has been fielded from Antagarh seat which he had won against former Congress MLA Manturam Pawar in last elections with the margin of mere 109 votes. The sole sitting MLA of Congress in Bastar, Kawasi Lakhma has been renominated from Konta seat.
POLLING IN 18 CONSTITUENCIES TODAY, REST 72 CONSTITUENCIES GO TO POLLS ON NOVEMBER 19
The constituencies where polls are being conducted on Monday are Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji of Rajnandgaon district (from 8 am to 5 pm with the exception of Mohla-Manpur where polling has ended at 3 pm) and Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Bastar, Jagdalpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta of Bastar division (from 7 am to 3 pm). Women voters have outnumbered men for first phase of polling, as 14,78,659 female voters are there against 14,53,730 men.
A total of 4,142 polling booths have been set up for this phase of which 1,517 are sensitive booths while 1,311 are hyper-sensitive stations. Out of the 18 seats, BJP had won 15 while Congress had three in the last election.
The rest 72 constituencies, including Bilaspur and state-capital Raipur, are scheduled for polls on November 19. A total of 562 companies (56,200 personnel) have been recently sent by the Centre for security related duty in addition to existing 40 battalions (40,000 men and women) of paramilitary forces who are engaged in anti-naxal operations and other security related duty in the state, official sources said.
VOTER TURN-OUT IN POLL-BOUND AREAS:
"There were polls in 18 vidhan sabha regions. Polling parties could not reach 2 polling stations, poll no. 115 and 118 of Antagarh region. There were hurdles due to Maoist activities. The detail report will be given by the EC and then it will be decided," said DD SINGH, Joint Chief electoral Officer.
"Polling parties could not reach 4 booths of Antagarh due to Naxal threat. Polling will be conducted in these areas again," confirmed State Chief Electoral Officer.
Also, there has been no voter turnout in 42 polling booths in Sukma due to Maoist activities in the region. These polling booths are inside security camps.
Voting also failed to kick start in two hyper sensitive polling booths - Durgapur and Sitaram - of Kanker as polling parties were unable to reach the venue owing to Naxal resistance and looting of EVM machines from polling parties.
NAXAL BOYCOTT AMID TIGHT SECURITY
As the polling got underway, string of explosives were recovered from separate places. From Naxal strikes, bomb explosions, defective EVMs to the functional EVMs being looted from the moment polling began in Bastar.
-A police personnel was injured when a pressure bomb laid by Naxals exploded in Kanker district of north Bastar.
-Naxals atop a hill in Dantewada opened fire at a polling booth on Monday morning and escaped after retaliatory firing from CRPF personnel. However, the Kanker encounter between CRPF and Naxals in still on.
-Many EVMs malfunctioned at Kusawand, Govindpur and Manjhapara polling booths in Kanker.
-Two live bombs were recovered near a polling booth in Dantewada and defused. 6 IED bombs were found in between Mangnaar and Saddhar, one bomb was found near Murkinar in Bijapur and another pressure bomb was found by security forces near polling booth in Pakhanjur.
"15-20 IEDs have been recovered in total from Sukma, Kanker, Dantewada, Narayanpur," said Ram Niwas, DGP, Chhattisgarh.
-One CRPF jawan has been killed after alleged CPI(Maoists) opened fire in Dantewada. The incident happened around 2 pm during a CRPF domination exercise.
Launching an attack on Naxal boycott of Chhattisgarh assembly elections, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said they are disturbing democratic process and called for fighting ultras unitedly.
(with inputs from agencies)
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