In Madhya Pradesh, 2,533 candidates, including CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his predecessor Kamal Nath are in the fray for 230 assembly seats.
Assembly Polls. (iStock)
Polling began for the second and final phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections for 70 seats and the 230-seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Friday, 17 November.
In Chhattisgarh, 958 candidates, including Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Deputy CM TS Singh Deo, eight state ministers and four members of Parliament are in the fray for the 70 seats.
The first phase of elections for 20 seats in the Naxal-affected state, which has a 90-member assembly, was held on 7 November and saw a high voter turnout of 78 percent.
Polling began at 7 am in nine polling booths in the Naxal-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district for security reasons and will end at 3 pm.
The polling time in all the 70 constituencies is from 8 am to 5 pm, except in these nine booths, an official said. The booths are Kamarbhaudi, Amamora, Odh, Bade Gobra, Ganwargaon, Gariba, Nagesh, Sahbinkachhar and Kodomali.
In Madhya Pradesh, 2,533 candidates, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his predecessor Kamal Nath are in the fray for 230 assembly seats, in a largely straight contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.
Besides Chief Minister Chouhan (Budhni) and state Congress president Kamal Nath (Chhindwara), three Union ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)— Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste— are contesting the polls.
Polling is being held from 7 am to 6 pm in all the assembly segments except in Baihar, Lanjhi and Paraswada seats in Balaghat district, 55 booths in Mandla district’s Bichhiya and Mandla seats and 40 polling stations of Dindori district, all Naxalite affected, where voting time is 7 am to 3 pm, an official said.
The ruling Congress voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
While the Congress has set an ambitious target of winning 75-plus assembly seats, the opposition BJP is seeking to make a comeback to power in the state which it ruled for 15 years non-stop— from 2003 to 2018.
A total of 958 candidates—827 men, 130 women and one transgender person—are contesting for 70 seats spread across 22 districts. As many as 1,63,14,479 voters— 81,41,624 men, 81,72,171 women and 684 of third gender—are eligible to exercise their franchise at 18,833 polling booths.
Among the candidates, 70 each are from the BJP and the Congress. There are 43 nominees from the AAP, 62 from the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 33 from the Hamar Raj Party in the fray.
The Mayawati-led BSP and the Gondwana Ganatantra Party, a regional political outfit, are contesting in alliance and have fielded 43 and 26 candidates, respectively.
While the main fight is between bitter rivals BJP and the Congress, a three-way contest is on the cards in several seats of the Bilaspur division where former CM Ajit Jogi’s party and the BSP have pockets of influence. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has also been focusing on seats in the division.
Of the total 18,833 booths, 700 are “sangwari” polling booths which are being entirely managed by women personnel.
The single-phase voting in Madhya Pradesh covering all the 230 assembly seats—47 of them reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 35 for Scheduled Castes—has more than 5.6 crore registered electors, the official said.
The mock poll was conducted in the presence of authorized polling agents 90 minutes before the actual start of voting, the official said.
Voting is underway in 64,626 polling stations set up in the state. They include 64,523 main booths and 103 associate (sahayak) stations, where the number of voters is more than 1,500.
As many as 5,60,58,521 voters, including 2,87,82,261 males, 2,71,99,586 females and 1,292 third-gender persons, are eligible to exercise their franchise. The voters also include service and overseas electors.
A total of 2,533 candidates of political parties and independents— 2,280 males, 252 females and one third gender person—are vying to enter the state assembly.
In the 230 assembly seats spread across 52 districts, a total of 73,622 Ballot Units (BUs), 64,626 Central Units (CUs) and 64,626 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) units are being used for conducting polling.
VVPAT system keeps a physical trail of all votes cast. It allows voters to verify their votes are cast as intended.
Besides main contenders for power Congress and the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party, among others, have also fielded their candidates.
The Congress, with 114 seats, emerged as the single largest party after the 2018 polls and formed the government with the help of BSP, SP and independent MLAs under the leadership of Kamal Nath.
However, the Nath regime collapsed in March 2020 after a rebellion by now-Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress MLAs loyal to him, paving the way for the return of the BJP government headed by Chouhan.
In Chhattisgarh, BJP’s poll campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed four well-attended rallies for the second phase and targeted the Baghel-led government over corruption, particularly the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, recruitment scandal and Naxalism.
The Congress based its campaign on a slew of welfare schemes rolled out by the Baghel government for farmers, women, tribals and Dalits, and accused the Centre of handing over resources to select industrialists.
The party has tried to woo farmers with the promise of a loan waiver, also made by it in 2018, and Other Backward Castes (OBCs) with a caste survey.
The Congress registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls, winning 68 of the 90 seats. The BJP was reduced to just 15 seats, while 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.
While in Madhya Pradesh, the high-decibel campaigning came to an end on Wednesday, 15 November. Top leaders criss-crossed the state addressing rallies, holding road shows, trading charges and making a slew of promises to seek votes for their candidates.
The electioneering saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, Union Minister Rajnath Singh and Chouhan, among others, addressing rallies to drum up support for the saffron party nominees.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, Nath and Digvijaya Singh, among others, addressed rallies to seek support for their party nominees.
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