Voting for three Lok Sabha constituencies, having Naxalite presence, in Chhattisgarh in the second phase of general elections began on Friday, with 15.42 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise in the first two hours.
“Polling in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituencies started at 7 am. Till 9 am, 15.42 per cent polling has been registered,” a poll official said.
“Polling is underway smoothly and peacefully,” he added.
Long queues of voters are being witnessed in several polling booths of three seats.
Among the early voters, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma and former MP Abhishek Singh cast their votes in Kawardha town (Rajnandgaon seat), BJP candidate Rupkumari Chaudhary in Harratar village in Mahasamund seat and BJP nominee Bhojraj Nag and his wife in Antagarh in Kanker.
The polling comes days after 29 Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Kanker district on April 16.
Of the eight assembly segments in the Kanker constituency, polling began in Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Keshkal and Kanker assembly segments at 7 am and will end at 3 pm, the official said.
In four other assembly segments, Sihawa, Sanjari-Balod, Daundilohara and Gunderdehi, polling began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm.
In the Rajnandgaon constituency, except the Manpur-Mohla assembly segment, where polling is being held from 7 am to 3 pm, voting in all other seven assembly segments began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.
The polling time in the Mahasamund constituency is 7 am to 6 pm, except in nine sensitive booths under the Bindranawagarh assembly segment, where it is being held from 7 am to 3 pm.
A security blanket comprising 222 state and paramilitary personnel was thrown across the three seats to ensure peaceful polling.
In the Kanker seat, extra vigil is being maintained by security forces given the threat from Naxalites, the official said.
Altogether 41 candidates, including former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, are in the fray in a direct fight between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.
Of the 41 candidates, 15 are in Rajnandgaon, 17 in Mahasamund and 9 in Kanker Lok Sabha seat. There are 52,84,938 eligible voters, including 26,05,350 men, 26,79,528 women and 60 members of the third gender in the three seats.
Altogether 6,567 polling booths have been set up in the constituencies and of them, 23 polling booths have been categorised as vulnerable, 458 have been marked as critical, the official said.
The high-profile Rajnandgaon seat is seeing a contest between BJP MP Santosh Pandey and Congress' Bhupesh Baghel, former chief minister and incumbent MLA.
The ruling BJP has dropped its sitting MPs in Mahasamund and Kanker seats and fielded former MLAs Rupkumari Chaudhary and Bhojraj Nag there respectively.
Opposition Congress has fielded former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu in Mahasamund and senior leader Biresh Thakur in Kanker seat. Thakur lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Kanker.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won 9 seats while Congress bagged two seats in Chhattisgarh.
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