THE 2023 Assembly elections kick-off on Tuesday with polling in Mizoram and Chhattisgarh first phase. Chhattisgarh is voting in two phases with the second phase to be held on November 17. Twenty constituencies of Chhattisgarh will go to the polls on Tuesday. Chhattisgarh has a 90 member House. Most of the seats are in the Naxal-affected belts with the districts of Bastar, Dantewada, Kanker, Kabeerdham and Rajnandgaon among those that will go to the polls. Polling in 40 Assembly seats in Mizoram Assembly elections will decide the fate of 174 candidates in Mizoram. According to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, Mizoram, 8,52,088 voters including 4,13,064 male and 4,39,028 female voters will exercise their franchise in 1276 polling stations. Mizoram has 50,611 electors in the age group 18-19 who will be voting for the first time. There are 8490 senior citizens above the age of 80 in the State.

 

To conduct free and fair elections in the State, around 50 companies of CAPF have been deployed in the State. Meanwhile, Former Chief Chhattisgarh Minister Raman Singh who is contesting from his seat of Rajnandgaon is among the prominent faces in the fray in Phase 1. State Minister Kawasi Lakhma is in the fray from Konta from where he is the sitting MLA. In 2018 the Congress won 17 of the 20 seats that will go to the polls in Phase 1. BJP had won 2 seats while Ajit Jogi’s party had won 1 seat. In 2023 the Congress has replaced 6 of the sitting MLAs in this phase while in the seat of Bahnupratappur the wife of late MLA Manoj Mandavi, Savita Mandavi will be contesting. There are a total of 223 candidates in fray for 20 seats. 5304 voting booths have been set up by the election commission for this phase. There are 40 lakh, 78 thousand ,681 voters in this phase. Of these there are 19 lakh, 93 thousand, 937 male voters and 20 lakh, 84 thousand, 675 female voters.