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Chhattisgarh assembly polls: What it takes to keep Bastar safe from Naxals

The state is going to polls in two phases - on November 12 and November 20.

Chhattisgarh assembly polls: What it takes to keep Bastar safe from Naxals ANI photo

Raipur: A day ahead of assembly elections, security arrangements across Chhattisgarh have been tightened on Sunday. The state is going to polls in two phases - on November 12 and November 20.

In the first phase, voting will be held in 12 assembly seats in Naxal-hit Bastar. More than one lakh youth have been deployed in the assembly constituencies of Bastar division to conduct a peaceful polling.

Nearly 55,000 soldiers have been stationed in the Naxal-hit areas of the district. In addition, as many as 50,000 jawans have been deployed in the election duty.

Here are the details of the jawans deployed in the election duty:

CRPF -135 company

BSF - 122 Company

ITBP - 125 Company

CISF - 63 Company

SSP - 34 Company

RPF - 05 Company

Sap - 112 company

The campaigning for the first phase of elections ended on Saturday. The first phase on November 12 will see 18 seats of eight Naxal-affected districts go to polls. Of these, 12 are Scheduled Tribe seats while one is a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat.

The ruling BJP had lost 12 of the 18 seats in the 2013 Assembly polls.

The remaining 72 constituencies will witness polling on November 20 and counting of votes will be held on December 11.

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.