Chhattisgarh polls: Voting underway for first phase, IED blast reported in Dhantewada

A thick security blanket, comprising over 1.25 lakh police and paramilitary personnel, was thrown across the 18 constituencies as they fall under the Naxal-hit areas of Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon districts.

Polling in 10 constituencies—Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta—started at 7 am and would conclude at 3 pm, an election official said.

In the other eight constituencies—Khairgarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Bastar, Jagdalpur and Chitrakot—voting began at 8 am and would end at 5 pm, he said.

An IED blast was triggered by Maoists early morning in Dantewada. “The explosion took place around 5.30 am on Tumakpal-Nayanar road when a team of security men was escorting polling personnel to their booth,” a senior police official said.

"No harm was caused to the security and polling personnel in the explosion. The polling party safely reached the Nayanar polling booth in Katekalyan area," he added.

Voting had stopped due to technical problem in the EVM at the Pink polling booth in Kamla College, in Rajnandgaon's Sangwari. 53 polling stations out of the total of 4336 reported a delay in starting the polls due to technical reasons but 100% of the polling stations were running smoothly with lines of people waiting outside to vote.
Polling parties are being sent to their destination amid tight security, election authorities said.

16.24% voter turnout has been recorded in the first few hours.

Three IEDs were also detected near a polling booth in Konta's Banda and the CRPF Bomb disposal squad is in the process of defusing. Polling is currently underway at a makeshift booth under a tree away from the designated polling booth.

Naxalites have called for a boycott of polls in the state and have executed half-a-dozen attacks in the last 15 days, three of them major ones which left 13 people dead, including a cameraman of national broadcaster Doordarshan who was covering the election campaign.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Chhattisgarh from Delhi early on November 12, for addressing a public rally in Bilaspur.

A Border Security Force (BSF) personnel was also killed when the Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Sunday, November 11, just a day before the first phase of Assembly polls in the state, police said.

The explosion took place in a forest when a BSF team was out on an area domination operation in view of the polls on Monday, Inspector General of Police (Raipur range) said Dipanshu Kabra.

When the patrolling team was was in the forest between Kattakal and Gome villages, around 200 km away from the state capital Raipur, the ultras blew up the IED, he said.

BSF sub-inspector Mahendra Singh was seriously injured in the blast and succumbed to injuries on way to hospital, said Kabra, who is the nodal officer for election-related security in the state.

This is the fourth IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh in the last 15 days.

On November 8, four civilians and a CISF jawan were killed when Naxals detonated an IED in Dantewada district. Besides, two BSF jawans were injured in an IED blast on November 2 in the same area in Kanker district.

Before that on October 27, four Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and two others injured after Maoists blew up their bullet proof bunker vehicle with an IED in Bijapur district.

A set of 6 IEDs were planted in a series and were set off in one go between village Gome and Gattakal in Koyali beda, newsagency ANI reported.

P Sundaraj, DIG, Anti-Naxals Operations, in Raipur said according to a report in the Firstpost that The situation in the area was brought under control and was normal. Security forces were however conducting search operations in the area.