RAIPUR: The polling for 20 of 90 seats of the state Assembly, 12 of which falling under Naxal-affected Bastar regions, will be held on Tuesday amid tight security apparatus. According to the election commission, polling will be held between 7 am and 3 pm in 10 seats—Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta.
In the remaining constituencies—Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Pandariya and Kawardha Bastar, Jagdalpur and Chitrakot—voting will be conducted between 8 am and 5 pm. Of the 20 seats, 12 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and one for the Scheduled Caste. The lowest number of candidates–seven each– are in the Chitrakot and Dantewada seats respectively.
During the campaigning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, while other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party spoke on religious conversion, deteriorating law and order and corruption.
BJP leaders made it a point to tell people at rallies that their party’s promises are “Modi’s guarantees”. The Congress based its campaign on the slew of welfare schemes of the Baghel government for farmers, women, tribals and Dalits as well as a promise to waive farm loans if it retains power. It also attacked the BJP-led Centre for “handing over” resources to “industrialist friends”.
The Congress has 71 seats in the 90-member Assembly. In the 2018 polls, it had inflicted a crushing defeat on the BJP, which had been ruling the state since 2003. The Congress holds 19 of these 20 seats, including two it won in bypolls. In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 17 of these 20 seats, the BJP two and the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh one.