Chhattisgarh polls: 30 per cent polling recorded till noon

Raipur: Around 30 per cent polling was recorded till noon in 72 constituencies spread over 19 districts of Chhattisgarh where voting for the second and last phase of Assembly polls is underway.

Governor Shekhar Dutt, Chief Minister Raman Singh, state Assembly Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ravindra Choubey exercised their franchise in their respective constituencies.

No untoward incident has been reported so far from any part of the state.

"So far the elections in 72 constituencies of 19 districts have been incident-free and 30 per cent polling was recorded till 12 noon," a senior election official told reporters.

EVMs were changed at around 10 polling stations due to some technical problems, he said.

State Governor Shekhar Dutt cast his vote in Raipur city north seat where BJP's Srichand Sundarani and Congress' sitting MLA Kuldeep Singh Juneja are in close contest.

Chief Minister Raman Singh voted in his hometown, which falls in Kawardha constituency.

On this seat, BJP has denied ticket to its sitting MLA and given an opportunity to Ashok Sahu, while Congress has pitted its senior leader Mohammad Akbar. Speaker Dharamlal Kaushik exercised his vote in Bilha constituency.

He had won this seat against Congress candidate Siyaram Kaushik by 6,070 votes in 2008 elections. Congress has given another opportunity to Siyaram from the same seat.

Ravindra Choubey voted in his home constituency Saja. A total of 843 candidates are contesting with an electorate of 1,39,75,470 in the last of the two-phase polls to the 90-member Assembly in the state where BJP government led by Chief Minister Raman Singh is eyeing for a hat-trick against the Congress.

Over one lakh security force personnel have been deployed across the state to ensure peaceful polling.

The polling is taking place in central and north Chhattisgarh, where 72 candidates each from the BJP and Congress are in fray. There are 75 women contestants.