Assembly Elections 2023: Over six hours have passed since voting began for the 40-seat assembly in Mizoram and in 20 constituencies of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday. As of 1 PM, 44.55 per cent of voters turned up to exercise their franchise in Chhattisgarh while Mizoram recorded a turnout of 52.73 per cent, according to the data of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Meanwhile, in Chhattisgarh, Bastar Range IG Sundarraj Pattilingam said that elaborate security arrangements have been made for a smooth voting process. "Out of over 2,900 polling booths, 600 polling booths are considered to be in the high security zone in Bastar region. A three-layer security cordon has been prepared for these polling booths," he said.
This comes amid updates that Naxals fired at DRG personnel deployed for the outer cordon around 2 kilometres away from Banda polling station early this morning in Sukma. Police said that the security forces retaliated and the firing from the Naxals' side stopped after 10 minutes. Police said all the jawans are safe and voting is underway, reported ANI. Earlier in the day, a CRPF jawan got injured due to an IED blast took place, triggered by Naxals, police said.
Meanwhile, the many bigwigs of both Congress and BJP have cast their votes as people line-up to vote for their choice of party. Both parties have claimed of securing a majority when results are announced on December 3.
Former CM and BJP leader Raman Singh said, "We (BJP) will win 14 out of 20 seats, including Rajnandgaon and Bastar. Our campaign was successful." In phase-1, polling is being held on 20 seats of the 90 assembly constituencies. Singh is contesting polls from Rajnandgaon.
Tuesday's polling has begun the elections in five states -- Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan and results will be declared on Dec 3.
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