72.13% turnout till 5 pm in 3 LS seats in Chhattisgarh; cop on poll duty dies by suicide

More than 72 per cent of voters exercised their franchise till 5 pm in three Lok Sabha constituencies, all having Naxalite presence, in Chhattisgarh, where the second phase of the general elections was held on Friday, officials said While polling took place amid tight security, a policeman deployed on election duty allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with a service weapon in Gariaband district during the day.

Polling began in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituencies at 7 am and was held in different time slots. A turnout of 72.13 per cent was registered till 5 pm, an election official said.

Of the eight assembly segments in the Kanker Lok Sabha constituency, polling ended at 3 pm in Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Keshkal and Kanker assembly segments, while in Sihawa, Sanjari-Balod, Daundilohara and Gunderdehi it concluded at 6 pm, he said.

In the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency, polling in the Manpur-Mohla assembly segment ended at 3 pm, and in the seven other assembly segments, it concluded at 6 pm.

The polling was held in the Mahasamund constituency till 6 pm, except in nine sensitive polling booths under the Bindranawagarh assembly segment, where it ended at 3 pm.

The tribal-dominated Kanker seat recorded a 73.50 per cent turnout, Mahasamund 71.13 per cent and Rajnandgaon 71.87 per cent till 5 pm, the official said.

The voting figure may go up as they are yet to receive the final data from several booths, he said.

Among the early voters, state assembly speaker and former chief minister Raman Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, former MP Abhishek Singh cast their votes in Kawardha town (Rajnandgaon seat), BJP candidate Santosh Pandey and his wife at Sahaspur-Lohara in Rajnandgaon, BJP candidate Rupkumari Chaudhary in Harratar village in Mahasamund, BJP candidate Bhojraj Nag and his wife at Antagarh in Kanker.

According to the police, a jawan of the Madhya Pradesh Special Armed Force deployed on poll duty allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle at a government school where he was stationed in Gariaband district under the Mahasamund seat.

A polling booth at Sivni village in Balod district (Kanker seat) was decorated like a wedding 'mandap', with a display of rituals of traditional weddings.

Brides and grooms, dressed in their wedding finery, cast their votes at several polling booths in the three seats.

In all, 41 candidates, including former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, are in the fray in three seats in a direct fight between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress.

In the 2019 polls, the voter turnout in Kanker Lok Sabha seat stood at 74.27 per cent, Mahasamund at 74.51 per cent and Rajnandgaon at 76.04 per cent.