Chhattisgarh kicks off election season
FIRST PHASE ENDS 70% turnout recorded; eight Maoists killed in encounter
RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh recorded 70% voter turnout in the first phase of state elections for 18 assembly seats on Monday, a figure election commission officials said will be updated once reports come from far-flung regions. In the last assembly election in 2013, the estimate on polling day was 67% for these 18 seats and it was later updated to 75.3%.
The second and last phase of Chhattisgarh elections for the remaining 72 seats will be held on November 20.
Of the 18 constituencies that went to polls on Monday, 12 fall in the Maoist hotbed of Bastar. The violence that hit the state in the run-up to the polls reared its head on Monday when eight Maoists were killed and five jawans of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) injured in two separate encounters.
“Two encounters took place on polling day in Bastar region. In the first encounter in Bijapur district six suspected Maoists were killed and five jawans belonging to the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) were injured. In the second encounter in Chitolnar in Sukma district, two Maoists were killed and two others were arrested,” DM Awasthi, special director general of police ( Anti-naxal operations).
The first phase of polling took place under a thick blanket of security with close to 100,000 security personnel being deployed and helicopters pressed into service to airlift polling staff to booths.
Election commission officials in Delhi said voting was delayed in about one percent of the 4,336 polling booths because of glitches in electronic voting machines and in 1.9% booths because of malfunction of the paper trail machines.
On Monday morning, Maoists triggered a blast through an improvised explosive device in Nayanar village when troops of the 195 Battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were approaching a polling
Congress’s politics is centred on one family. Which poor doesn’t want gas connection or bank balance? But the family in Congress is disconnected from people. They neither have the will nor the leadership to bring changes.
NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister Rahul baba (Congress chief Rahul Gandhi) is dreaming that his party will form government in Chhattisgarh... Raman Singh is like ‘Angad ka paon’ (mythological character Angad’s feet) and can’t be uprooted. AMIT SHAH, BJP president
booth. No injury to the personnel was reported. “The election was peaceful at many places and Maoists were not able to attack the polling booths of sensitive areas,” Awasthi added.
Before Monday, at least 14 persons, including a Doordarshan cameraperson covering the elections, died in six attacks by suspected Maoists, who have asked people to boycott the elections.
The violence, however, did little to slowdown parties’ campaign for the elections that are perceived by political observers as the “semi-final” before next year’s general elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday addressed a rally in Bilaspur, where polling will take place in the second phase and launched an attack on the Congress.
The state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, which has launched an aggressive campaign to return to power after 15 years, are hopeful of a good showing in the first phase. “The first phase of polling is very important for both parties. The pattern and polling will reflect the political mood in Chhattisgarh,” said Raipurbased political commentator Ashok Tomar.
During his rally, Modi took a veiled dig at the Gandhi family stating that “politics in Congress starts and ends with one family”.
Rebutting the PM, Congress spokesperson RP Singh said everyone knows the sacrifices made by the Gandhi family for the country. “The PM has no real issues to raise in Chhattisgarh and is making frivolous allegations,” he said. I am confident that I will be the chief minister. We will win. There is anti-incumbency working against the BJP government. They have ruled Chhattisgarh for the last 15 years, but basic They have pockets of strong influence across the state. They won one seat, stood second on two others and polled about four and a half per cent vote.
They are a valuable partner for me. My party and the BSP have a common support base —the extremely backward classes and the Scheduled Castes. We will complement each other in the polls and spring a surprise on the Congress and the BJP. Congress has become faceless. There is no leader in the party who is known, or has influence in every quarter of the party. It is a divided house. Raman Singh’s strength is that he has no strength. He has failed as chief minister of the state.