Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections 2023 Phase 1: Voting Date, Number Of Seats, Candidates, Results And More

Campaigning for the first phase of Assembly elections in 20 seats in Chhattisgarh ended on Sunday evening, with voting scheduled to take place on November 7.

The first phase of campaigning saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacking Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, while other leaders of the BJP spoke on religious conversion, deteriorating law and order and corruption.

The Congress based its campaign on the slew of welfare schemes of the Baghel government for farmers, women, tribals and Dalits.

The ruling party in the state on Sunday released its manifesto for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls, promising caste census, loan waiver to farmers, Rs 3,200 per quintal for paddy procurement and subsidised cooking gas cylinders to women under a new scheme.

The Congress unveiled its manifesto titled 'Bharose ka Ghoshna Patra 2023-28' at six different places - Raipur, Rajnandgaon, Jagdalpur, Bilaspur, Ambikapur and Kawardha - two days before the first phase of the state polls.

Annual financial assistance to married women and landless agricultural labourers, paddy procurement at Rs 3,100 per quintal and cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 to poor families are some of the key highlights of the BJP's poll manifesto for Chhattisgarh released last week.

Filling one lakh vacant government posts in Chhattisgarh in two years and taking people of the state on a visit to the Ram temple, which is being constructed in Ayodhya, are also among the 20 promises of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mentioned in the manifesto.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah released the BJP manifesto titled 'Modi's Guarantee for Chhattisgarh 2023' during a function held at Kushabhau Thakre Parisar, the saffron party's state office in Raipur.

Here's all you need to know about the first phase of the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh:

Voting for the first phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 7.

These 20 seats are in seven districts of the Naxal-affected Bastar division and four other districts, namely Rajnandgaon, Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, Kabirdham and Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai.

Polling in Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta (all reserved for Scheduled Tribe category) constituencies will take place from 7 am to 3 pm.

Polling will take place between 8 am and 5 pm in the remaining 10 seats, namely Khairgarh, Dongargarh (Scheduled Caste), Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Pandariya, Kawardha, Bastar (ST), Jagdalpur and Chitrakot (ST), said a statement issued by the office of Chief Electoral Officer in Raipur.

In the first phase, the political fate of 223 candidates, including 25 women, will be decided by 40,78,681 voters, including 19,93,937 male, 20,84,675 female and 69 third-gender persons, while 5304 polling booths have been set up for the first phase.

State Congress chief and MP Deepak Baij (Chitrakot), ministers Kawasi Lakhma (Konta), Mohan Markam (Kondagaon) and Mohammad Akbar (Kawardha) and Chhavindra Karma (Dantewada) are among the prominent candidates from ruling Congress in the first phase.

The main candidates from the BJP in this phase are former chief minister Raman Singh (Rajnandgaon) and former state ministers Kedar Kashyap (Narayanpur), Lata Usendi (Kondagaon), Vikram Usendi (Antagarh) and Mahesh Gagda (Bijapur). Former IAS officer Neelkanth Tekam is contesting from Keshkal.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 17 out of the 20 seats that will go to polls in the first phase.

The Congress has 71 seats in the 90-member House. The second phase of polls to 70 seats will take place on November 17, while results will be counted on December 3.

(With PTI inputs)