For First Time Since Independence, Villagers Cast Votes in Chhattisgarh’s Chandameta Area

Bastar: As polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections got underway on Friday, villagers – for the first time since Independence – cast their votes in Chhattisgarh's Chandameta area, a stronghold of Maoists, and the last village of the Bastar district from where Tulsi Dongri hills join Odisha.

It is also the same place, which, at some point in time, was a training ground for Maoists. But now, with an increase in anti-Maoists operations in the area and the villagers defying a poll boycott called by Maoists, hundreds were seen queuing up at the polling booths to cast their ballots.

Teams of CRPF officials were deployed to ensure safety of villagers who cast their votes for the first time. 

Confirming that the election-related procedure was put in place for the first time in the area since Independence, Bastar DM Vijay Dayaram in an exclusive conversation with Republic TV Network, said, “the election process took so long earlier as people used to travel to different polling locations, owing to security reasons and inaccessibility. However, in the last five to six months, villagers have been provided with at least the basic facilities, following which they exercised their franchise this time for the first time since Independence”.

Responding to a question on the newly-constructed roads and electricity in the area, Dayaram told Republic that the villagers earlier relied on solar panels, and that roads and electricity have been provided only recently. 

63.41% Voter Turnout Till 5pm in Maoist-Hit Bastar

During the first phase of polling today for general elections, over 64 percent of the 14,72,207 lakh voters exercised their franchise by 5 pm in the Maoists-hit Bastar Lok Sabha constituency. Polling in the constituency started at 7 am and was held in different time slots amid tight security.
 
According to an official, polling in the Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta assembly constituencies and at the 72 centres in the Jagdalpur assembly segment under the Bastar Lok Sabha seat, ended at 3pm.

To ensure peaceful voting, at least 60,000 state and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the constituency.

Altogether 14,72,207 voters, comprising 7,71,679 women, 7,00,476 men and 52 transgenders, were eligible to exercise their franchise in the seat where 11 candidates were in the fray. As per the officials, as many as 1,961 polling booths were set up in the constituency, 61 of which have been categorised as "vulnerable" and 196 as "critical".
 
The main fight was between firebrand Congress leader Kawasi Lakhma and BJP candidate Mahesh Kashyap, a fresh face, in Bastar, which the saffron party had failed to secure during the 2019 Lok Sabha battle.