Fearless enthusiasm, that is what described voting in the insurgency-infested lok Sabha constituencies of Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and Kanker as large streams of voters queued up at various polling booths since early morning hours delighting polling officials at the booths.
In all the three constituencies of Mahasamund, Kanker and Rajnandgaon, voters turned out in large numbers defying Maoist call to boycott polls and threat issued by them not to venture out for voting.
In Mahasamund district, as many as 12 polling booths had direct webcast done by the Election Commission due to their high sensitivity.
The Commission had declared 286 booths in the district as sensitive on account of insurgency and another 367 as ‘politically sensitive’.
All the booths were heavily fortified in Mahasamund district with State and Para military force personnel deployed to prevent any untoward incident, being a high profile seat due to candidature of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi.
Former chief minister and Congress candidate Ajit Jogi arrived at 7 am in a convoy at the local Adarsh Children High School in Mahasamund and inspected the polling booths.
In Rajnandgaon, the assembly segments of Mohla-Manpur, Dongargarh, Khairagarh, Khujji, Dongargaon, Kawardha, Pandariya and Rajnandgaon saw a huge turnout since early morning hours with people seen walking to the booths with their families and children.
In the villages of insurgency infested Gatapar, lachna, Tebhri and Chandurbha, bordering Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh coming under Rajnandgaon lok Sabha constituency, huge number of men and women were seen queuing up at polling booths since the morning hours.
In Kanker, despite a blast triggered by the insurgents to disrupt polls, people were seen walking to the polling booths undeterred in the hot sun to cast their vote.
In Bardebhata polling booth in Kanker, polling was delayed by about 20 minutes due to a snag in the EVM.
The regions of Bhanupratppur, Antagarh, Keshkal, Durgukondal and Dadargarh are considered senisitive in terms of activity of insurgents. In all the aforesaid regions, Maoists had thrown large number of leaflets while giving a call to boycott polls with a warning not to cast vote.
In the Kanker lok Sabha constituency, BJP candidate Vikram Usendi cast his vote at his home village Antagarh while Congress candidate Phulodevi Netam cast her vote at Parasgaon.
In Rajnandgaon lok Sabha constituency, Chief Minister Raman Singh, his son and candidate for the Rajnangaon lok Sabha seat Abhishek Singh and wife voted in their home town Kawardha under a heavy security blanket thrown up before their arrival in the polling booth.
In all the three constituencies during the second phase of polls in Chhattisgarh, the voter turnout was near to almost 50 per cent by noon hours.