NEW DELHI: Marred by incidents of Maoist-led violence, the first phase of elections for 39 Assembly seats in Chhattisgarh ended on Friday with a rather respectable voter turnout of 55 percent.
The polls, especially in the Maoist-dominated Bastar and Bijapur regions, were hit by at least 25 incidents of violence in which one CRPF radio operator and one flight engineer of the Indian Air Force died while two Special Police Officers (SPOs), one state police personnel and a civilian were injured.
“The security forces repulsed heavy Maoist attack on at least six polling booths in Bastar region alone,” said a senior Chhattisgarh police officer.
The armed rebels blocked roads and snatched electronic voting machines in several areas of Bastar and Bijapur regions despite precautionary measures taken by the Election Commission.
In first phase polls, 379 candidates are in the fray of which 42 are female candidates.
To make the polling widespread in the densely forested tribal region, the Election Commission had provided 8,879 polling stations for nearly 64 lakh electorates.
The polls were administered under the deployment of about 43,000 central paramilitary force personnel and 13,000 state police personnel, besides assistance coming from 17 CRPF battalions that are already present in the region.