Security blanket for Chhattisgarh polls

The fate of 178 candidates contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Chhattisgarh will be sealed by the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) on Thursday, as the state goes to the polls tomorrow in the first phase of general elections.

According to sources in the state electoral office, more than 12,000 polling parties today left for the respective centres. On Tuesday, 8150 polling parties were sent to the centres that are located in the interiors areas and Naxal-infested pockets of the state.

The Election Commission (EC) has set up 20,979 polling booths across the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. While polling will be held from 7 am to 4 pm in nine Lok Sabha constituencies, voters will exercise their franchise from 7 am to 3 pm in two Naxalite-infested constituencies of Kanker and Bastar.

Sources said that 250 polling parties were dropped in five Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers in the insurgency-hit two constituencies yesterday. In the Dantewada district—one of the most disturbed districts-- 67 polling parties were sent on Monday.

In the sensitive Konta area, rebels ambushed a polling party that was moving on foot in one of the centres. “The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans escorting the party returned the fire that continued for about 20 minutes before the rebels fled the spot,” sources said. No casualty was, however, reported.

The election officials said adequate security arrangement had been made in the disturbed areas to conduct free and fair polling.

A thick security blanket had been thrown around in the entire Bastar region while the state’s border with Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra had been sealed as part of security arrangement for the polling, senior police officials