Voting in Chhattisgarh: Polling begins for phase 2; CM Baghel among 958 in fray

Polling began Friday morning for the second and final phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh where 958 candidates including Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel Deputy CM T S Singh Deo eight state ministers and four members of Parliament are in the fray for 70 seatsPolling began at 7 am in nine polling booths in Naxalaffected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district for security reasons and will end at 3 pm The polling time in all the 70 constituencies is from 8 am to 5 pm except in these nine booths an official said The booths are Kamarbhaudi Amamora Odh Bade Gobra Ganwargaon Gariba Nagesh Sahbinkachhar and KodomaliThe first phase of elections for 20 seats in the Naxalaffected state which has a 90member assembly was held on November 7 and saw a high voter turnout of 78 per cent The ruling Congress voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition and the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP are the main contenders for power in the state where the Aam Aadmi Party AAP the Bahujan Samaj Party BSP and some regional outfits are also in the frayWhile the Congress has set an ambitious target of winning 75plus assembly seats the opposition BJP is seeking to make a comeback to power in the state which it ruled for 15 years nonstop from 2003 to 2018 A total of 958 candidates 827 men 130 women and one transgender person are contesting for 70 seats spread across 22 districts As many as 16314479 voters 8141624 men 8172171 women and 684 of third gender are eligible to exercise their franchise at 18833 polling boothsAt 26 the Raipur City West seat has the highest number of contestants while Dondilohara in Balod district has the lowest count of candidates at four Among the candidates 70 each are from the BJP and the Congress There are 43 nominees from the AAP 62 from the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh J and 33 from the Hamar Raj Party in the fray The Mayawatiled BSP and the Gondwana Ganatantra Party a regional political outfit are contesting in alliance and have fielded 43 and 26 candidates respectivelyWhile the main fight is between bitter rivals BJP and the Congress a threeway contest is on the cards in several seats of the Bilaspur division where former CM Ajit Jogis party and the BSP have pockets of influence The Arvind Kejriwalled AAP has also been focusing on seats in the division Of the total 18833 booths 700 are sangwari polling booths which are being entirely managed by women personnelChief Minister Baghel Patan seat T S Singh Deo Ambikapur assembly speaker Charan Das Mahant Sakti eight state ministers including Tamrdhwaj Sahu Durg Rural and Ravindra Choubey Saja are among prominent Congress candidates in the second phase From the BJP state unit chief and MP Arun Sao Lormi Leader of Opposition in the assembly Narayan Chandel JanjgirChampa Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh BharatpurSonhatST MP Gomti Sai PathalgaonST former ministers Brijmohan Agrawal Raipur South Ajay Chandrakar Kurud and Punnulal Mohile Mungeli are among key candidates in the second and final phaseBaghel has been contesting from his traditional Patan seat where the BJP has fielded his distant nephew and party MP Vijay Baghel The candidature of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh J state president and son of former chief minister Ajit Jogi Amit Jogi in Patan has added a new dimension to the contest The BJP has fielded a fresh face Rajesh Agrawal against Singh Deo in Ambikapur Agrawal had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress ahead of the assembly polls in 2018Of the 70 assembly segments up for grabs 44 are in the general category while 17 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and nine for Scheduled Castes In the previous assembly polls in 2018 the Congress had won 51 of these 70 constituencies while the BJP ended up with 13 The Janata Congress Chhattisgarh J had bagged four seats and the BSP two The Congress later won one more seat in a bypollThe BJPs poll campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed four wellattended rallies for the second phase and targeted the Baghelled government over corruption particularly the alleged Mahadev betting app scam recruitment scandal and Naxalism Top BJP leaders while on campaign trail also criticised Chief Minister Baghel over the alleged betting app scam and religious conversion and accused the ruling Congress of indulging in appeasement politicsCongress president Mallikarjun Kharge senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and CM Baghel led the campaign for the ruling party and mounted a counteroffensive claiming their party is concerned about the interest of the poor while the BJPled Centre only works for the welfare of the richThe Congress based its campaign on a slew of welfare schemes rolled out by the Baghel government for farmers women tribals and Dalits and accused the Centre of handing over resources to select industrialists The party has tried to woo farmers with the promise of a loan waiver also made by it in 2018 and Other Backward Castes OBCs with a caste surveyAAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and BSP chief Mayawati also campaigned for their party candidates The Congress registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls winning 68 of the 90 seats The BJP was reduced to just 15 seats while the JCC J and the BSP bagged 5 and 2 seats respectively The Congress later added more seats in bypolls and its tally in the outgoing assembly is 71This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever