Campaigning for the second phase of Chhattisgarh assembly elections came to a halt on Wednesday. Voting has taken place on 20 seats in the first phase on 7 November. During this period, 78 percent voting took place. Now in the second phase, voting on the remaining 70 seats is to be held on Friday, November 17.
There are 958 candidates in the second phase in which the political fate of 827 men, 130 women and one transgender candidate is to be decided. About 1 crore 63 lakh voters will cast their votes on 7th November. 18,833 polling stations have been set up for voting.
Prominent faces of Congress
In the second phase, voting is to be held in the most important Patan seat of the state. State Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is a candidate from Patan. Apart from Baghel, eight ministers of the state including Assembly Speaker Charan Das Mahant (from Sakti seat), Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo (from Ambikapur), Tamradhwaj Sahu (from Durg Rural) and Ravindra Choubey (Saja) are among the prominent candidates of Congress.
Prominent faces of BJP
Rajnandgaon seat of former Chief Minister and veteran BJP leader Raman Singh had already been decided in the first phase, but in the second phase also many stalwarts of Bharatiya Janata Party are in the fray. BJP state president and MP Arun Sao (Lorami seat), Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel (Janjgir-Champa) is the candidate. Apart from these, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh (Bharatpur-Sonhat seat), MP Gomti Sai (Pathalgaon seat) are also among the major candidates of BJP for the November 17 elections.
2018 elections: status of 70 seats
In the 2018 assembly elections, Congress had won 51 of these 70 assembly seats. At the same time, Bharatiya Janata Party won only 13 seats, Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) won four seats and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won two seats.
In the 2018 elections, Congress had registered a landslide victory on 68 out of 90 assembly seats in the state. BJP was reduced to 15 seats in the last elections while Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) had to be satisfied with 5 MLAs and BSP had to be content with only 2 MLAs.
