Chhattisgarh records 50-55 percent voting

Raipur, Nov 7: An estimated 50-55 percent of the over 200,000 electorate exercised their franchise in Chhattisgarh's Vaishali Nagar assembly seat by-poll Saturday, officials said.

Election officials said that voting was peaceful at most of the 221 polling booths.

"Voting was largely peaceful except for a few minor incidents. Though the final polling percentage will be known later, but I estimate the figure to be between 50-55 percent," District Electoral Officer, Ram Singh Thakur told reporters.

Voting began on a dull note in villages, but picked up later. In urban areas long queues of women were seen at polling booths even before voting began at 8.a.m.

At three places polling was held up briefly due to technical problems in the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

About 211,000 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 15 candidates. The main contest is between the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Jageshwar Sahu and the main opposition Congress nominee Bhajan Singh Nirankari.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the third force in Chhattisgarh's politics, has decided to stay out of the contest.



The by-poll was necessitated after BJP legislator Saroj Pandey was elected to the Lok Sabha in May and vacated the assembly seat. Votes will be counted Nov 10.

The Congress and the BJP have both claimed they were set for a record win in Vaishali Nagar.

--IANS