As many as 143 candidates are left in the fray for the first phase of the State Assembly election scheduled on November 11, in 18 constituencies falling under Rajnandgaon and Bastar region, informed Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur on Saturday.
The CEO further detailed, 65 candidates of recognised national parties, 40 candidates of non-recognised registered regional political parties will fight elections. Similarly, 38 Independent candidates are also in the contest for 18 Assembly seats.
A total of 29,33,200 voters which include 14,53,730 male and 14,78,659 female electorates are living in the 18 Assembly seats. “In this way, the number of female voters is 24,929 more than the male voters in these constituencies,” said CEO Kujur. The CEO further informed that in Bastar region polling time has been fixed between 7 am to 3 pm and so the campaigning and airing of advertisements by electronic media channels should stop at 3 pm on November 9. However, voting in Rajnandgaon district would be held from 8 am to 5 pm on November 11 and therefore, the campaigning and advertisements, opinion polls etc. must stop at 5 pm on November 9, the CEO said.
Over the distribution of the Assembly seat, the CEO informed that out of 18 constituencies, five seats are reserved for general candidates, 12 for Scheduled Tribe and one for Scheduled Caste candidate.
The CEO further informed that Konta seat has least number of candidates (four) contesting election while Rajnandgaon and Jagdalpur have highest 14 candidates each in the race. In all 4,556 polling teams will be deployed for conducting polling and 4,142 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be used. There are 4,142 polling stations, including 68 auxiliary stations in the 18 constituencies. Further 167 hyper sensitive polling stations have been shifted and 1,040 micro observers would closely watch the elections.
According to the CEO, there are 1,311 highly sensitive and 1,517 sensitive polling stations in the 18 constituencies. The voting process would be recorded in video cameras at 2,700 sensitive and highly sensitive polling stations situated in Bastar and Rajnandgaon.
Commenting over the security measures, the CEO informed that eight helicopters have been deployed in the election which would airlift the polling teams and materials to the remote areas. One air ambulance have also been provisioned for handling emergency medical cases, the CEO told reporters.