LS polls: 3 Chhattisgarh seats witness moderate polling, 63.44 percent voter turnout recorded

Balloting was moderate in Chhattisgarh's three Lok Sabha constituencies on Thursday, marking the second phase of polling in the state. 63.44 per cent voting was recorded in the three constituencies, an official said.

Polling was held in Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and Kanker and will be held in the remaining seven constituencies on April 24.

Voting came to a close at 3 pm in parts of Rajnandgaon and Kanker seat, which are Maoist affected. Balloting, however continued to 6 pm in the rest of the areas.

Long queues were seen in Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund constituencies while balloting was sluggish in Kanker, which is part of the southern restive Bastar region.

Voting was largely peaceful.

A total of 4,558,873 electors, including 2,277,408 women, are eligible to elect their representatives to the Lok Sabha from among the 50 candidates in the fray in the second round of polling in the state.

Balloting was being held in 6,114 polling stations. A total of 29,350 poll officials were tasked with conducting the election.

As many as 56 web cameras and 1,258 digital/video cameras were vinstalled at polling stations to monitor the polling process, the election official said.

The state's first phase of voting took place for the Bastar Lok Sabha seat. The voter turnout there was 46.55 per cent.

Ajit Jogi, who was Chhattisgarh's first chief minister when it was carved out of the erstwhile Madhya Pradesh, is locked in a direct contest in Mahasamund with the BJP's sitting MP, Chandulal Sahu, a local heavyweight of OBC community that makes up roughly 50 per cent of the state's 2.55 crore population.

Jogi won Mahasamund seat in 2004 by over 1.25 lakh votes, defeating nine-time MP VC Shukla, who contested on a BJP ticket, on his home turf. Jogi suffered a near-fatal road accident in the 2004 poll campaign and since then he is bound to a wheelchair.

Raman Singh, who is heading the BJP government since 2003, faces the popularity test in Rajnandgaon where his only son, Abhishek Singh, was making his electoral debut.

Abhishek, 32, holds an MBA degree in human resource. He is pitted against Congress candidate Kamleshwar Verma.

In Kanker, Raman's former cabinet colleague Vikram Usendi, who suffered a crushing defeat in November assembly polls, tried reviving his political career.

The BJP had dumped its four-time winner Sohan Potai this time from Kanker to bet on Usendi.

The Congress has fielded Phulo Devi Netam, who commands significant support in a large chunk of this Scheduled Tribes reserved constituency.