A voter turnout of 76.31 per cent was recorded in Chhattisgarh assembly elections for 90 seats held in two phases on November 7 and 17. The counting of votes will be on December 3.
The turnout is slightly lower than the voting percentage of 76.88 per cent recorded in the 2018 elections.
Since the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, the highest voter turnout was recorded in 2003 with 77.12 per cent. In the five elections held in the state so far, turnout has never dropped below 70 per cent.
A voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded in the first phase for 20 assembly constituencies in seven districts of the Naxalite-affected Bastar division and four other districts on November 7, while a 75.88 per cent turnout was registered in the second and final phase for 70 seats on Friday, according to a poll official, reports PTI.
The Kurud constituency saw the highest voter turnout among the 90 constituencies at 90.17 per cent, while ST-reserved Bijapur seat recorded the lowest voting percentage at 48.37 per cent.
Bijapur, among the left-wing extremism (LWE)-affected regions, went to polls in the first phase. The polling percentage in 2018 were declined from 48.94 per cent.
Dantewada, another LWE-affected and ST-reserved seat, saw the biggest increase in turnout, rising by 9.31 percentage points from 60.57 per cent in 2018 to 69.88 per cent this time.
A voter turnout of more than 80 per cent was recorded in 38 assembly segments out of the 90. In 50 constituencies, women voters took the lead over men.
In the 70 constituencies where voting was held on Friday, polling parties have returned safely and election-related material submitted at collection centres. EVM machines were sealed in the presence of representatives of political parties and agents of candidates, an official said.
Four assembly segments in the state capital- Raipur City South, Raipur City North, Raipur City West and Raipur Rural- recorded voting percentages of 60.20 %, 55.59 %, 55.94 % and 58.55%, respectively. In 2018, the percentages in these segments were 61.66 %, 60.28 %, 60.45 % and 61.11 % respectively.
CM Bhupesh Baghel’s Patan seat saw a turnout increase by almost 1 percentage point from 83.33% in 2018 to 84.27% this time, his key rival ex-CM Raman Singh’s Rajnandgaon seat saw a turnout increase only marginally, from 78.95% to 79.13%.
A total of 1,181 candidates are in the fray including Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel and his predecessor and BJP leader Raman Singh as well as Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo.
Patan seat represented by Baghel is witnessing a triangular contest with BJP fielding the chief minister’s distant nephew and party MP Vijay Baghel while Amit Jogi, Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) state president and son of former CM late Ajit Jogi, is also in the fray.
In the Ambikapur constituency, the BJP has fielded a fresh face Rajesh Agrawal against TS Singh Deo. Agrawal had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress ahead of assembly polls in 2018.
Nine state ministers, including Tamrdhwaj Sahu (Durg Rural constituency), Ravindra Choubey (Saja) and Kawasi Lakhma (Konta), state Assembly Speaker Charan Das Mahant (Sakti) and state Congress chief and MP Deepak Baij (Chitrakot), are among the other prominent Congress candidates.
From the BJP’s side, Raman Singh, party’s state unit chief and MP Arun Sao (Lormi constituency), opposition leader Narayan Chandel (Janjgir-Champa), Union minister Renuka Singh (Bharatpur-Sonhat), MP Gomti Sai (Pathalgaon), former ministers Brijmohan Agrawal (Raipur South), Ajay Chandrakar (Kurud) and Punnulal Mohile (Mungeli) are the key contestants.
In the 2018 elections, the Congress had registered a landslide victory securing 68 of the 90 seats, while the BJP won 15. 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 71.