Raipur, Chhattisgarh:

Amid heightened security, the Maoist-affected Bastar Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh state will go to polls tomorrow for the first phase of general elections with 11 candidates in the fray.

Calls by the Maoists to boycott the elections have posed a challenge to security forces, but their morale appears to be high after 29 Maoists, including senior cadres, were shot dead by them in a major counter-insurgency operation in Kanker district on April 16. high. Kanker is a part of Bastar region.

Congress’s firebrand leader Kawasi Lakhma will face off against new face of BJP Mahesh Kashyap in Bastar, which the saffron party lost in 2019 ) contest.

The state’s chief electoral officer Reena Babasaheb Kangale told reporters on Thursday: “Bastar is the only Lok Sabha constituency in the state and the first phase of voting will be held on April 19. All preparations have been made to vote in Bastar. Hold free and fair elections.”

Voting will be held from 7 am to 3 pm at polling stations in Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta assembly constituencies of the Bastar Lok Sabha seat. Besides, polling hours for Bastar constituency will be from 7 am to 5 pm. She said that in the Jagdalpur assembly segment, polling will be held in 175 booths from 7 am to 3 pm and in 72 booths from 7 am to 3 pm.

A total of 11 candidates are contesting in Bastar and a total of 14,72,207 voters, including 7,71,679 women, 7,00,476 men and 52 members of the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise, the official said.

She said there were 1,603 service voters, 12,703 differently-abled voters, 47,010 voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years, 3,487 voters in the age group above 85 years and 119 voters above the age of 100 years.

As many as 1,961 polling stations have been set up in this constituency. She said that 191 of the polling stations will be ‘Sangwari’ polling stations (managed by women personnel), 42 ‘adarsh’ polling stations will be managed by ‘diyangjan’ and another 8 polling stations will be managed by ‘diyangjan’, 36 polling stations It will be managed by young people.

A total of 9,864 polling personnel were deployed in the first phase, Kangale added.

“Adequate security measures are in place in all eight assembly constituencies of this Lok Sabha seat to ensure peaceful and fair elections. In the first phase, 61 polling stations were classified as ‘vulnerable’ and 196 polling stations were polled,” she said. The station is classified as ‘critical’.”

She said 811 of the total 1,961 booths will be webcast.

Seven helicopters, including three helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and several helicopters of the Border Security Force (BSF), ferried 919 polling personnel at 156 polling stations in remote and sensitive areas in the past two days. Of the 156 polling stations, 76 are in Bijapur district, 42 in Sukma, 33 in Narayanpur, three in Dantewada and two in Kondagaon, she said.

She said the remaining 1,805 voting groups were bused to their destinations on Thursday.

According to officials, around 300 companies of various units of the state police and 350 companies of CAPFs, including the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Border Security Force (BSF) (more than 60,000 personnel) have been deployed to guard the constituency. Polling day.

Ground patrols as well as hawk-eye surveillance from the sky by drones are in place to track the movements of the Maoists, especially in areas near polling stations and security force camps, a police official said.

As in previous years, Maoist extremists have called for a boycott of the polls, with posters and pamphlets found in pockets in some constituencies over the past month.

Congress leader Rahma is contesting the elections from the Bastar Lok Sabha seat against the BJP’s Kashyap.

Congress rejected the votes of sitting MP Deepak Baij and appointed sitting MP Lakhma. Rahma is a six-time MP and served as a minister in the previous Congress government in the state.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has pinned its hopes on Kashyap, who has been an active member of a Hindu sect in the past.

High-decibel campaigning in the first phase of the state’s Lok Sabha elections was dominated by acrimonious exchanges between arch-rivals the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress over issues such as corruption, poverty and pre-poll promises.

The saffron party’s campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, who each addressed a rally in the constituency. At the rally, the BJP leaders targeted the Congress party, especially the previous government in the state led by Bhupesh Baghel, over corruption issues and highlighted the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Addressing a rally, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who leads the opposition party’s campaign along with colleague Sachin Pilot and state party chief Deepak Baij, And launched a counterattack, claiming that their party has the best interests of the poor, while the central government led by the BJP only serves the rich.

The Congress party has campaigned on its poll promises, including Mahalakshmi Yojana, caste census, recruitment to 30 lakh vacant government jobs, apprenticeships for youth and abolition of contract system and farm loan waiver for government companies.

There are 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh and the elections will be held in three phases.

After the Bastar seat polling on Friday, the second phase of voting for the three seats of Rajanandgaon, Kanker (ST) and Mahasamund will be held on April 26.

The remaining seven seats – Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur, Jhanjigir-Champa (SC), Korba, Surgujja (ST) and Raigarh – will be contested in May Voting will take place in the third phase on the 7th.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)