Jaipur: Despite the threats of Maoist violence, Chhattisgarh will go to the polls tomorrow (Monday).
Out of 90 constituencies, voters of 18 constituencies will cast their votes tomorrow in the first phase of the election.
The BJP, ruling the state since 2003, has 49 seats in the outgoing Assembly, while the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party in 38 and one respectively in the 90 member Assembly.
As per the schedule, voting will start at 7 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. in 10 seats while the remaining eight seats voting will take place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The 10 seats where early voting is being held are-Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, Konta, Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal and Kondagaon.
The rest of the constituencies — Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Bastar, Jagdalpur and Chitrakot — will see polling from 8 a.m.
The state election commission has set up a total of 4,336 polling booths for the first phase of the state polls. There are 31,80,014 voters, including 15,57,435 males, 16,22,492 females and 87 of the third gender.
The state government has deployed around one lakh security personnel, including paramilitary forces, across the state for the smooth conduct of the election in for the first phase.
These are in addition to the existing paramilitary personnel and 200 companies of state forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations in the tribal-dominated state.
Indian Air Force and BSF choppers have also been pressed into service.
The second phase of the Chhattisgarh election will be held on November 20 and the votes will be counted on December 11 along with the Assembly polls of Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan.
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Ms Kalinga