After completion of voting in 10 constituencies till 3 pm, 47.18 percent voter turnout had been recorded in the first phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections 2018.
RAIPUR: PM Modi on Monday addressed a public rally in poll-bound Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur. Bilaspur is among the 72 seats that will see polling in Phase-2 on November 20 while 18 seats in Bastar and Rajnandangaon poll in Phase-1 today.
PM Modi was first expected to fly to Chhattisgarh for the rally at noon and then leave in the afternoon around 2 PM for his constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi where he will inaugurate two highway projects.
After polling for 10 seats will end at 3 PM on Monday and for the remaining eight seats at 5 PM, the parties can campaign in the rest of the state on the same day.As many as one lakh security personnel, including paramilitary forces, have been posted in the state.
Chief Minister Raman Singh is vying for a fourth consecutive term and his main opponent is BJP-turned-Congress leader Karuna Shukla, a niece of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The ruling BJP in Chhattisgarh has tailored its campaign around ‘Raman par vishwas, Kamal sang vikas’ — its slogan in the poll-bound state.
PM Modi attacked Congress and other opposition that they don’t know how to fight with BJP. “Our opposition still don’t know how to fight the BJP. We are focused on development, we went beyond the caste divisions. You can witness development wherever you go in Chhattisgarh.”
PM Modi said the party’s “politics begins and ends with one family”. “The politics of Congress begins and ends with a Dynasty; ours begins and ends in the huts of the poor,” he said.
The Naxals had threatened the voters that their fingers would be cut if an ink mark was found on them, But the voters showed courage and exercised their democratic right.
