RAIPUR: Amid the poll boycott call given by the outlawed CPI (Maoist), the Bastar constituency is witnessing an encouraging turnout that apparently eclipsed the terror that haunted the Chattisgarh state ahead of the first phase polling. The voters were seen turning up enthusiastically in most of the polling booths across the Bastar Lok Sabha segments.
The electorates reached the polling centres since morning with both women and men were seen standing in queues. There are over 13.72 lakh voters and 1878 polling booths for the Bastar seat.
Interestingly the women (712261) voters outnumber men (659824) in Bastar.
The voting began at 7 am to continue till 3 pm in three districts of the Bastar constituency while in remaining three the scheduled hour remains 8 am to 5 pm.
As per information available, till 9 am, voter turnout in the Maoist-hit district has been 10.80%.
The fate of 7 candidates who are in the poll fray from Bastar, would be sealed today. According to the sources, an additional ten thousand jawans were sent besides around 75000 personnel who have been deployed to ensure peaceful and fair elections following the recent attacks unleashed by Maoists.
A scheduled tribe reserved seat of Bastar is poised to witness a bipolar contest between the ruling Congress and the BJP. Since 1998 the BJP having retained it.
The BJP has replaced its sitting MP Dinesh Kashyap by a two-time MLA Baiduram Kashyap, while Congress has fielded its sitting MLA Deepak Baij.
Based on the threat perception and the safe accessibility to booth locations, as many as 150 polling centres were relocated in 2014 but this year 289 have been shifted on security ground. Out of the
1332 centres falling in Maoist-affected areas, as many 798 polling centres are declared as naxal hyper-sensitive and 534 are declared as sensitive.