Campaigning for Bastar Lok Sabha elections ended at 5 pm on Wednesday. Under the first phase, polling will be held in Bastar Lok Sabha on April 19. As per information received the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Chhattisgarh, 100 polling parties (583 poll staff) have been sent to polling stations in Bijapur, Sukma, Kondagaon, Dantewada and Narayanpur districts by Indian Air Force (IAF) choppers on Wednesday. 64 polling parties have been sent by vehicles from Government Model College Dharampura for concerned polling stations in Bastar, Jagdalpur, Chitrakote and Narayanpur legislative assembly constituencies on Wednesday. Bastar’s Collector and Returning Officer, Vijay Dayaram K, bid farewell to the polling parties with roses, extending congratulations to them. Following Protocol 2 (P-2), the polling teams were dispatched to various stations: 7 in Narayanpur Assembly, 4 in Bastar, 13 in Jagdalpur, and 40 in Chitrakote Assembly. As they set off, Collector and District Election Officer Vijay Dayaram K expressed his sincere wishes for a smooth, fair, and peaceful polling process, emphasizing their safe return.

 

The administration provided the facility of e-rickshaw to bring the materials from the strong room to the polling parties of Chitrakote and Bastar assembly constituencies. Chief Executive Officer of Jila Panchayat Prakash Sarve, Additional Collector C P Baghel, Commisisoner of Municipal Corporation Haresh Mandavi, Deputy District Election Officer Pravin Verma, Assistant Returning Officer Bharat Kaushik, A R Rana, Subrat Pradhan, Joint Collector Rishikesh Tiwari and other officers were present. Eleven candidates are in the fray for the Bastar Lok Sabha seat. The candidates contesting are Kawasi Lakhma from the Indian National Congress, Maheshram Kashyap from the BJP, Narendra Burka from the Hamar Raj Party, Kawalsingh Baghel from the Rashtriya Jansabha Party, Aayaturam Mandavi from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Phulsingh Kachlam from the CPI, Shivram Nag from the Sarv Aadi Dal, Sundar Baghel as an independent candidate, Teekam Nagvanshi from the Gondwana Gantantra Party, Jagdish Prasad Nag from the Azad Janata Party, and Prakash Kumar Gota from the Swatantra Dal.

 

Both main political parties- the BJP and the Congress are intensely campaigning to woo voters at the last moment. The main fight in Bastar Lok Sabha seat is between Kawasi Lakhma of the Indian National Congress and Maheshram Kashyap of the BJP. There are eight assembly constituencies- namely Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Bastar, Jagdalpur, Chitrakote, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta in Bastar Lok Sabha and are 1961 polling stations. There are over 14,66,337 voters including over 6,98,197 male voters, over 7,68,088 female voters and 52 third gender voters in Bastar Lok Sabha constituency. There will be 97 Sangwari polling centres, managed by female polling officials, in Bastar Lok Sabha. 8 Divyang polling centre and 31 Yuva polling centres have been set up.