Chhattisgarh: 12.02% turnout recorded in Bastar Lok Sabha seat till 9 am

Raipur/Jagdalpur: Voting for the Naxal-hit Bastar Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh began in the first phase on Friday, with 12.02 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise in the first two hours.

“Polling in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency started at 7 am. Till 9 am, 12.02 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 in the constituency.

Among the early voters, Congress candidate Kawasi Lakhma cast his vote in Nagaras polling booth (Sukma district), BJP candidate Mahesh Kashyap in Kalcha (Bastar district), state BJP chief Kiran Deo in Shanti Nagar (Jagdalpur- Bastar) and state forest minister Kedar Kashyap in Farsaguda (Bastar).

A thick security blanket, comprising around 60,000 state and paramilitary personnel, was thrown across Bastar Lok Sabha constituency to ensure peaceful polling.

Polling in booths of Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta assembly constituencies in the Bastar Lok Sabha seat is being held from 7 am to 3 pm.

In the Bastar assembly constituency, polling is being held from 7 am to 5 pm. In the Jagdalpur assembly segment, 175 booths are seeing voting from 7 am to 5 pm and in 72 booths, it is being held from 7 am to 3 pm, she said.

According to police officials, so far no incidents of naxal violence have been reported from the region.

Altogether 14,72,207 voters – 7,71,679 women, 7,00,476 men and 52 members of third gender – are eligible to exercise their franchise in the seat where 11 candidates are in the fray, the official said.

As many as 1,961 polling booths have been set up in the constituency and of them, 61 booths have been categorised as vulnerable and 196 as critical.

The straight fight is between Congress' firebrand leader Kawasi Lakhma and BJP’s Mahesh Kashyap, a fresh face, in Bastar, which the saffron party had lost in 2019.