Chhattisgarh: 60% turnout in 3 Naxal-hit seats, no report of violence

, April 17: About 60 per cent of electorate cast their votes till 3 PM in three Naxal-hit Lok Sabha constituencies in

during the second phase of

, which has so far remained peaceful.

"The voter turnout of 60 per cent was recorded in Kanker, Rajnandgaon and Mahasamund seats till 3 pm and no violent incident has been reported from the region so far," Joint Chief Electoral Officer DD Singh said, adding that polling in the seven insurgency-hit Assembly constituencies in these seats has concluded at 3 PM.

The segments where polling came to an end are Sihawa, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker and Keshkal of Kanker seat, Mohla-Manpur of Rajnandgaon and Bindranawagarh of Mahasamund.

Polling at Daundilohara Assembly seat (Kanker) closed at 4 PM, the officer said.

"The time of polling in rest of the Assembly constituencies under these three seats is up to 6 PM," Singh said.

Meanwhile, re-polling at Polampalli booth of Bastar constituency where voting could not be held on April 10 due to disruption by Naxals also concluded at 3 PM, Singh said.

Out of total 45,56,051 registered voters, 22,78,646 voters are men and 22,77,405 women. A total of 50 candidates, including five women, are in the fray.

The maximum number of candidates fielded per constituency are: Mahasamund (27), followed by Rajnandgaon (13) and Kanker (10).

A total of 6,114 polling booths, including 2,452 which are regarded as critical, have been set up at Rajnandgaon (2,211) Mahasamund (1,937) and Kanker (1,781), where 29,347 employees have been deployed.

As many as 56 web cameras and 1,258 digital/video cameras have been installed at polling stations to monitor the process, Singh said.

Prominent candidates in the fray are chief minister Raman Singh's son Abhishek from Rajnandgaon, who is taking on Congress' Kamleshwar Verma, former chief minister Ajit Jogi who is pitted against BJP's sitting MP Chandulal Sahu from Mahasamund and former BJP minister Vikram Usendi from Kanker seat against Phoolo Devi Netam of Congress.

PTI