Campaigning for Bastar poll ends; Voters to decide fate of 7 candidates tomorrow
   Date :10-Apr-2019

 
 
Staff Reporter Raipur:
 
Voting in Dantewada, Konta, Bijapur and Narayanpur of Bastar Lok Sabha constituency will be held between 7am and 3pm to counter the Naxal menace while Chitrakot, Kondagaon and Jagdalpur will see polling between 7 am and 5 pm.
 
Direct fight likely between Dipak Baij from Congress, Baiduram Kashyap from BJP. Other candidates are Aaytu Ram Mandavi (BSP) and Ramu Ram Maurya (Communist) Panish Prasad Nag (API), Mangalaram Karma (ABSKP) and Suresh alias Sargiram Kawasi (Shiv Sena)
 
 
Campaigning for Bastar, which is the only Lok Sabha seat of Chhattisgarh going to poll in the first phase on April 11, ended on Tuesday evening. Candidates of different political parties, including arch rivals BJP and Congress, had left no stone unturned to woo the voters till the last minutes of their campaigning that ended at 5 pm on Tuesday. Candidates were seen in a hurry while making door-to-door campaign and holding meetings, so that they could reach maximum number voters before the deadline of campaigning. As many as seven candidates remained in fray for Naxal-infested Bastar where 13,77,946 voters, including 7,15,550 women, would exercise their franchise and decide the fate of candidates even as it seems to be a straight fight between BJP and Congress.
 
Voting will be held at 1,880 polling booths. Total eight candidates had filed their nominations for Bastar parliamentary constituency which has eight assembly constituencies in five districts. Voting in Dantewada, Konta, Bijapur and Narayanpur of Bastar Lok Sabha constituency will be held between 7am and 3pm, as these constituencies are infested by naxal terror and the polling ends early so as to counter the Naxal menace. The remaining four Assembly segments, which are Bastar, Chitrakot, Kondagaon and Jagdalpur, will see polling on April 11 between 7am and 5pm. With rejection of nomination of Jaisingh Kavde of Rashtriya Jansabha Party during scrutiny of papers, seven were left in the fray. Dipak Baij, considered as young and firebrand leader of Congress, is likely to give a tough fight to BJP’s Baiduram Kashyap for Bastar seat which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe category.
 
Two other parties -Bahujan Samaj Party and Communist Party, too, have fielded their candidates Aaytu Ram Mandavi and Ramu Ram Maurya respectively from this seat. Similarly, Panish Prasad Nag from Ambedkarite Party of India (API), Mangalaram Karma from Akhil Bharat Samagra Kranti Party (ABSKP) and Suresh alias Sargiram Kawasi (Shiv Sena) are other candidates in the fray for the Bastar Lok Sabha seat. BJP, which has been retaining Bastar Lok Sabha seat since 1998 has fielded Baiduram Kashyap by replacing its sitting MP Dinesh Kashyap, son of former BJP MP late Baliram Kashyap from this seat. Unlike previous four elections, this election will not be a cakewalk for BJP keeping in mind Congress’ landslide victory in the recently held Assembly elections. Meanwhile, Election Commission of Chhattisgarh said that helicopters were used to take 72 polling teams to Bastar’s various stations including 512 sensitive and 224 highly sensitive booths. Lok Sabha elections will be held in three phases for 11 seats in Chhattisgarh. Polling for 1st, 2nd and 3rd phase will be held on April 11, April 18 and April 23 respectively. Total 1,89,16,285 voters, including 94,38,463 women and 709 members of the third gender in Chhattisgarh can exercise their franchise in elections.