RAIPUR: The outlawed CPI (Maoist) triggered a blast at Katekalyan area in the strife-torn Dantewada district even as the polling began across the 10 Assembly constituencies amid heightened security in conflict zone of Bastar and Rajnandgaon at 7 am on Monday.
The voting process in the remaining 8 seats started at 8 am."The Maoists detonated a blast which was far away from the polling station in an attempt to create terror. Extensive and tight security arrangements are well in place to ensure credible, fair and peaceful polling. The people are quite enthusiastic and we are aiming for 100 per cent voting in our district," Dantewada collector Saurabh Kumar, who was among the first to exercise his franchise, told The New Indian Express.
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Maoists have given a poll boycott call. Around 70,000 security personnel are deployed in Bastar zone. In 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.
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.