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Final phase of polling in Chhattisgarh on Friday for remaining 70 of 90 seats
The ruling Congress has claimed it will win 75 plus seats of the 90 seats; BJP is seeking to make a comeback in the state where it was in power from 2003 to 2018
Raipur: Polling for the second and final phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly elections will be held on Friday for 70 seats, which will decide the fate of chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, deputy chief minister T S Singhdeo, eight ministers in the Baghel cabinet and four members of parliament.
While the ruling Congress has claimed, it will win 75 plus seats out of the total 90 this time, BJP is seeking to make a comeback in the state where it was in power from 2003 to 2018.
A high turn out could be expected on Friday given the 76.42% voting that was recorded in the 2018 polls,
Of the 70 Assembly segments, 44 are general while 17 segments are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and nine for Scheduled Castes.
Here are the numbers: 958 candidates, including 827 men, 130 women and one transgender, contesting from 70 constituencies in 22 districts with an electorate of 1,63,14,479 voters.
Among the candidates 70 each are from the BJP and Congress. There are 44 candidates fromthe Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 62 from Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and 33 from Hamar Raj Party in the fray in the second phase while Bahujan Samaj Party and Gondvana Gantantra Party are contesting in alliance and fielded 43 and 26 candidates respectively.
The main contest is between the BJP and Congress. According to poll experts, a three-way fight, however, is imminent in several seats of the Bilaspur division where Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and BSP have a considerable presence; AAP too has focussed on this region.
The time of polling in all 70 constituencies is from 8 am to 5 pm, except at nine polling booths in the Naxal-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Rajim district, where voting will be held from 7 am to 3 pm.
The polling booths in naxal-affected Bindranawagarh seat are Kamarbhaudi, Amamora, Odh, Bade Gobra, Ganwargaon, Gariba, Nagesh, Sahbinkachhar and Kodomali.
Of the total electorates in the second phase, 81,41,624 are men , 81,72,171 women and 684 third-gender; as many as 18,833 polling booths have been set up for the second phase.
Baghel has been contesting from his traditional Patan seat where BJP has fielded his distant nephew and party MP Vijay Baghel. The entry of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) state president, Amit Jogi, son of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, could make for a keen contest. .
The BJP’s poll campaign was all but spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed four well-attended rallies for the second phase and targetted the state government over corruption, particularly on the Mahadev betting app scam, a recruitment scandal and Naxalism.
Also Read: On Chhattisgarh’s election pitch, politics over paddy procurement
Top BJP leaders also targetted Baghel over cases of religious conversion, and accused the ruling Congress of carrying out appeasement politics.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and Baghel led the campaign for the ruling party and mounted a counter-offensive claiming that their party is concerned about the interest of the poor while the BJP-led government at the Centre only works for the welfare of the rich.
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 industrialist friends . It has tried to woo farmers with a promise of loan waiver, also made by it in 2018, and the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) with the promise of caste census.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and BSP chief Mayawati also campaigned for their party candidates.
The first phase of elections on 20 seats was held on November 7, which saw a high voter turnout of 78 % .
Experts believe that it will be a close contest between the Congress and BJP.
“Both the national parties focused on wooing the farmers, female and young voters through their respective manifestos. BJP alleged Congress to have done various scams in their tenure and Congress alleged BJP for using central agencies in their favour against them. Overall a good fight between both the parties and if BJP had been active in ground for the four and half years the situation would have been different and might be in their favour,” said Harsh Dubey, a Chhattisgarh-based political activist.
The Congress had registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls, winning 68 seats, and comfortably formed the government. The BJP was reduced to 15 seats, while the JCC (J) and the BSP bagged 5 and 2 seats, respectively. The current strength of the Congress is 71.
