INDIA VOTES 2024: 63.41% turnout in Naxal-affected Bastar; CRPF jawan killed in grenade explosion

Raipur/Jagdalpur, April 19

Voter turnout of over 63 per cent was recorded on Friday in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal-affected Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, which saw the death of a CRPF constable after a grenade accidentally went off and injury to an officer in an IED blast, officials said.

Polling in the constituency started at 7 am and it was held in different time slots amid tight security in the first phase of elections. A voter turnout of 63.41 per cent was registered till 5 pm, an election official said. The voter turnout in the constituency stood at 66.04 per cent in 2019.

Bastar: Phase-I

Total voters 14.72 LAKH

Men 7.01 LAKH

Women 7.71 LAKH

Transgenders 52

11 candidates in fray

1,961 polling booths

61 ‘vulnerable’

196 ‘critical’

Main contest

Kawasi Lakhma (Cong) vs Mahesh Kashyap (BJP)

Polling at booths in Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta Assembly constituencies and 72 centres in the Jagdalpur Assembly segment under the Bastar Lok Sabha seat ended at 3 pm, he said. At booths in the Bastar Assembly constituency and 175 centres of the Jagdalpur Assembly constituency, polling was held from 7 am to 5 pm, the official said.

The turnout figure might go up as the final figures from several booths were yet to be received, he added.

At least 60,000 state and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the constituency to ensure peaceful polling.

Residents of 56 villages cast votes at polling booths set up in their own villages for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections, he said.

A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan deployed on security duty was killed when a shell of an under-barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) accidentally exploded at Galgam village under the Usoor police station limits in Bijapur district, a police official said. The incident occurred while security personnel were out on an area-domination exercise near a polling booth, the official added. “Constable Devendra Kumar, belonging to the CRPF’s 196th battalion, suffered serious injuries in the blast and was airlifted to Jagdalpur, but he died during treatment,” he said.

In another incident, an assistant commandant of the CRPF was injured when a pressure improvised explosive device (IED) planted by the Naxalites exploded in the Bhairamgarh police station area of Bijapur district, the police said. The explosion occurred near the Chihka polling booth under the Bhairamgarh police station while a team of security personnel was out on an area-domination operation. During the exercise, Manu HC, an assistant commandant belonging to the CRPF’s 62nd battalion, came in contact with the pressure IED, triggering a blast that caused injuries on his left leg and hand, he said.