C'garh: 3-phase LS polls for 11 seats on Apr 11, 18, 23

Polls for 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh will be held in three phases on April 11, 18 and 23.

The schedule for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls nationwide was announced Sunday by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in New Delhi.

Addressing a press conference, Chhattisgarh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Subrat Sahoo said of the 11 parliamentary seats in the state, four are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and one for Scheduled Castes.

Naxal-hit Bastar (ST) constituency will be the only seat that will go to polls on April 11, he said.

Polls to Kanker (ST), Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund seats will be held on April 18 in the second phase.

The remaining seven Lok Sabha seats - Surguja (ST), Raigarh (ST), Janjgir-Champa (SC), Raipur, Durg, Korba and Bilaspur will witness polling on April 23, Sahood informed.

The notification for April 11 polling will be issued on March 18, after which the filing of nominations will begin.

The last date for filing nominations will be March 25 and their scrutiny will be completed on March 26, and contestants can withdraw their forms till March 28.

The notification for the April 18 polling will be issued on March 19, last date for filing nominations will be March 26, scrutiny will be completed the next day, and contestants can withdraw their candidature till March 29, he said.

For the third phase on April 23, the notification will be issued on March 28, last date for filing nominations will be April 4, scrutiny will get completed on April 5 and withdrawal of names can happen till April 8, Sahoo said.

The counting of votes will be taken up on May 23, he said.

The state has 1,89,16,285 voters, comprising 94,77,113 men, 94,38,463 women and 709 third-gender persons.

The number of voters between 18-19 years of age are 4,60,394 in the state, he said.

The state has 23,727 polling booths, of which 5,625 are in critical areas.

The state has total 15,758 service voters.

During 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the state had a total of 1,76,64,520 voters, he added.

For Lok Sabha polls, as far as possible, two 'sangwari matdan kendra' (polling stations managed by women staff) will be set up in each assembly constituency, he said.