Chhattisgarh elections: State Congress vice president Ghanaram Sahu resigns barely hours ahead of polling

Raipur: Barely hours ahead of Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, state Congress Vice President Ghanaram Sahu on Sunday resigned from the membership of the party.

The 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will go to polls in two phases - on November 12 and November 20 while the results will be announced on December 11.

The first phase of polls on Monday will cover 18 constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts that include Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon. Of these, 12 are Scheduled Tribe seats while one is a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat.

The campaigning for the first phase of elections ended on Saturday.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lost 12 of the 18 seats.

The remaining 72 constituencies will witness polling on November 20.

A total of 1,291 candidates are in the fray for the two-phased state polls. In the 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 49 seats, Congress 39, BSP 1 and Independent 1 in the 90-member House.