Raipur: Chhattisgarh has recorded an overall voter turnout of 72.8 per cent in elections to the 11 Lok Sabha seats, according to poll officials, registering an increase of 1.31 per cent from the 2019 figure.
Polling in the 11 Lok Sabha seats of the state was held in three phases – April 19, April 26 and May 7.
“The overall voter turnout in the 11 Lok Sabha seats is 72.8 per cent. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the turnout stood at 71.49 per cent,” state’s Chief Electoral Officer Reena Babasaheb Kangale said Thursday.
The Naxal-affected Bastar constituency (reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates), where voting was held April 19, recorded 68.29 per cent turnout.
Rajanandgaon, Kanker (ST-reserved) and Mahasamund seats went to polls April 26 and registered a turnout of 77.42 per cent, 76.23 per cent and 75.02 per cent, respectively.
In the third phase of polling, Surguja (ST-reserved) seat recorded a voter turnout of 79.89 per cent, Raigarh (ST-reserved) 78.85 per cent, Korba 75.63 per cent, Durg 73.68 per cent, Janjgir-Champa (SC-reserved) 67.56 per cent, Raipur 66.82 per cent and Bilaspur 64.77 per cent.
A total of 220 candidates contested the Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Raipur had the maximum number of 38 candidates, followed by 37 in Bilaspur, 27 in Korba, 25 in Durg, 18 in Janjgir-Champa, 17 in Mahasamund, 15 in Rajnandgaon, 13 in Raigarh, 11 in Bastar, 10 in Surguja and 9 in Kanker.
The BJP won 10 out of the 11 seats in three general elections from 2004 to 2014.
In the 2019 polls, the BJP bagged nine seats, while the Congress got two seats.
In the high-profile Raipur seat, the contest was between BJP’s incumbent minister Brijmohan Agrawal and Congress’ Vikas Upadhyay, a former MLA.
In another key seat Rajnandgaon, BJP’s sitting MP Santosh Pandey was pitted against Congress MLA and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.
In Korba seat, BJP fielded former MP Saroj Pandey against Congress’ sitting parliamentarian Jyotsana Mahant, wife of incumbent leader of opposition Charandas Mahant.
In Durg, the Congress chose Rajendra Sahu, a fresh face, against sitting BJP MP Vijay Baghel.
In Bastar, Congress’ firebrand leader Kawasi Lakhma was pitted against BJP’s Mahesh Kashyap, a fresh face.
The ruling BJP this time dropped its sitting MPs in Mahasamund and Kanker seats and fielded former MLAs Rupkumari Chaudhary and Bhojraj Nag there, respectively.
The Congress fielded former state home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu in Mahasamund and Biresh Thakur in Kanker.