Campaigning ends in Naxal-affected Bastar constituency of Chhattisgarh

Raipur: Campaigning for Lok Sabha elections ended in the Naxal-affected Bastar constituency of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday evening, where voting would be held on 10 April. [caption id=“attachment_1471879” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AAP candidate Soni Sori. IBNLive[/caption] Chief Election Officer of the state Sunil Kujur told reporters that there are 12,98,971 registered voters in Bastar, which comprises six districts. A total of eight candidates are in the fray, two of them women. Of the 1,797 polling booths, 1,407 are deemed “critical”. As many as 8,625 election personnel would be employed during the polling. Kujur said that some areas are so remote that polling staff is being ferried there by helicopters. A total of six helicopters would be used to ferry 153 polling teams. 238 polling booths have been relocated for security reasons, he said. While the ruling BJP in the state has fielded the sitting MP Dinesh Kashyap, the Congress has given the ticket to Deepak Karma, the son of the late Mahendra Karma who died in Naxal attack on a Congress convoy in Jeerum valley last year. Though the contest would be mainly between BJP and Congress, AAP has fielded tribal teacher Soni Sori, who had been arrested by police on the charges of links with Naxals. The state has 11 Lok Sabha seats. Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund and Kanker would see polling on April 17; Sarguja, Raigarh, Janggir-Chhapa, Korba, Bilaspur, Durg and Raipur would go to the polls on April 24. PTI