Ch’garh election: Polls to held in Kanker on Tuesday amid high security

KANKER (Chhattisgarh): Polling teams reached all the polling stations of Kanker district on Monday. There are three seats in the district of Kanker, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur and Kanker. All three seats were won by the Congress in 2018. The ruling Congress however has not given tickets to the sitting MLAs of Kanker and Antagarh, while in Bahnupratappur Savitri Mandavi the wife of late MLA Manoj Mandavi, who had won the seat in in 2018, is contesting on a Congress ticket.

Two special rooms have been prepared in Kanker and Antagarh. Teams have been sent from Kanker to Bhanupratappur assembly constituencies, which are the most Naxal-affected areas.

Kanker Collector Priyanka Shukla said, "This time tight security arrangements have been made in the most Naxal-affected areas, while some polling centres will also be monitored with drones." With Chhattisgarh set to hold its first phase of Assembly polls on November 7, campaigning for the elections ended on Sunday.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, Chhattisgarh, a total of 223 candidates in the 20 assembly constituencies of the first phase, of which 198 are men and 25 are women, will contest the polls on Tuesday. The Chief Electoral Officer said that a total of 5,304 polling stations have been set up to ensure smooth voting.

Chhattisgarh has a total of 64,523 polling stations in these election. As per the Election Commission 5,61,36,229 Voters are eligible to cast their vote.

Of these there are 2,63,829 first time voters in the age group 18-19 The elections for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will be held in two phases, with the first phase of polling for 20 seats scheduled for November 7 and the remaining 70 seats to go for polling on November 17. The counting of votes is scheduled for December 3.

Congress stormed to the hustings in Chhattisgarh in the 2018 elections, winning 68 of the 90 seats and hogging 43.9 per cent of the total votes polled.