RAIPUR: In around a dozen polling stations the voting was interrupted owing to technical glitches in the electronic voting machines (EVMs). During the first couple of hours, the voting percentage was around 15 per cent in various seats.
The EVM snag was reported in Kanker, Rajnandgaon, Jagdalpur, Bhanupratapur and polling was delayed by an hour in Bijapur, Narayanpur and south Bastar. The chief electoral officer Subrat Sahu said that in places where the EVM machines were reported to have developed problems, they have been replaced.
“Some minor issue on orientation and cabling in the machine system were immediately rectified. The polling process is smoothly on everywhere”, he said. Early in the day, the outlawed CPI (Maoist) triggered a blast at Tumakpal area in the strife-torn Dantewada district even as the polling began across the 10 Assembly constituencies amid heightened security in the conflict zone of Bastar and Rajnandgaon.
Since morning, the majority of the polling centres across 18 Assembly constituencies of seven districts of Bastar and Rajnandgaon. the electorates were seen reaching the polling centres with both women
and men standing in queues.
The Maoists in the state have again given a call to boycott the Assembly elections. Around 70,000 security personnel have been deployed in Bastar zone and some 25000 in the Rajnandgaon to ensure smooth electoral process.
There are over 31 lakh voters and 4336 polling booths in the first phase. The fate of 190 candidates including the chief minister Raman Singh who is in the poll fray from Rajnandgaon, would be sealed today in the first phase of polling.