Chhattisgarh’s three Parliamentary constituencies- Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon and Kanker, will go to polls on Thursday amidst tight security.

A massive security deployment has been made to ensure peaceful voting. Polling teams were airlifted to sensitive areas as the Election Commission completed all preparations for the second phase of polling in the state.

Mahasamund and Rajnandgaon are general constituencies while Kanker is a reserved seat for the Schedule Tribe. The three constituencies have combined voters of 4895719. Out of which 2432554 are males, 2463102 females and 63 others.

As many as 6484 polling booths have been set up the second phase of polling. A total of 36 candidates, 14 in Rajnandgaon, 13 in Mahasamund and 9 in Kanker are in the fray.

The number of polling booths set up in Mahasamund are 2140 covering 16,32,962 electorates— 8,10,783 males, 8,22,158 females and 21 from third gender.

Rajnandgaon has 17,10,682 electorates. Of them 8,55,739 are males, 8,54,934 females and nine from third gender.  Rajnandgaon has 2322 polling booths.

In Kanker, 2022 polling booths have been set up to facilitate the constituency’s 15,52,075 electors to cast votes. Female voters (7,86,010) outnumbered males (7,66,032,) in the constituency, which also has 33 voters from third gender.

Polling in Rajnandgaon seat will be held as scheduled from 7 am to 5 am except for Mohla Manpur (ST) assembly segment where balloting will end by 3pm.

In Mahasamund, at Bindranawagarh (ST) Assembly segment’s polling station no. 77 and Aamamora polling station 28, the polling will be held from 7am to 3pm. In other centers polling will be held as scheduled.

In Kanker Parliamentary seat the polling timing will be truncated to 3pm for three assembly constituencies of Antagarh (ST), Bhanupratappur (ST) and Kanker (ST). In other segments, the 7am to 5pm timing will remain unchanged.

The prominent BJP candidate Santosh Pandey and Congress candidate Bholaram Sahu are in fray at Rajnandgaon LS seat. At Mahasamund BJP candidate Chunnilal Sahu is pitted against Congress candidate Dhanendra Sahu, who is an MLA from Abhanpur. The Congress candidate in Kanker is Biresh Thakur while BJP fielded Mohan Mandavi.