Chhattisgarh Assembly polls: 71.93 pc voter turnout recorded in second phase

Raipur: In the second phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly poll, the state has recorded 71.93 per cent voter turnout till 6 pm on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said the polling percentage was likely to rise further as a number of people were still in the queue for voting.

He said the polling percentage for this phase is slightly higher than that recorded during 2013 which was 71.13 per cent.

Sinha said Tuesday's election was peaceful and incident-free as elaborate security arrangements were made. He added that a number of old voters, including those over 100 years of age, also exercised their franchise and the Commission had made arrangements for them.

The EC said with Tuesday's polling percentage the total average turnout for Chhattisgarh has been 74.17 per cent, which may go up further.

The second and final phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections were held Tuesday for 72 of the 90 seats in the state amid tight security arrangements.

A total of 1,079 candidates, including 119 women, were contesting in 72 constituencies of the state with an electorate of 1,54,00,596,  including 77.53 lakh male, 76.46 lakh female and 877 transgender.

Also Read: Chhattisgarh elections: 71.93 per cent voter turnout recorded till 6 pm

While polling began at 7 am in two of the 19,336 booths, the rest followed the usual time of 8 am to 5 pm.

Of the 19,336 polling booths set up for the second phase, 444 were sensitive booths.

There were reports of technical snags in EVMs at some places, which delayed the polling process, official said.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has removed a presiding officer and a polling staff of different polling booths in Marwahi constituency of Bilaspur district, after receiving complaints against them. Bilaspur Collector P Dayanand removed presiding officer of Semra polling booth Surendra Kumar Mandavi, and a polling staff of Dhanauli polling station Kamal Kishore Tiwari after getting complaints against them by concerned polling agents, a statement issued by poll officials said.

"An inquiry has been ordered against Mandavi and Tiwari and they have been ousted from the polling duty," it said.

Chief Minister Raman Singh, his wife Veena Singh and son Abhishek Singh, a BJP MP from Rajnandaon district, voted in Kawardha constituency.

State ministers including Brijmohan Agrawal, Rajesh Munat and Premparkash Pandey, besides State Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel and Leader of Opposition TS Singhdeo exercised their franchise in their respective areas.

Around 1.50 lakh security personnel were deployed across the state to ensure peaceful polling.

Of the 72 seats, 17 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and nine for Scheduled Castes. A total

During the first phase of voting on November 12 for 18 seats in the Naxal-affected areas of the state, a total of 76.42 per cent polling was recorded.

The counting of votes will be held on December 11.