RAIPUR: Chattisgarh will go for polls for the 90 assembly constituencies in two-phases with 20 seats polling on November 7 and for 70 seats on November 17, 2023. State has 51 unreserved constituencies while seats are reserved for 29 Scheduled Caste and 10 for Scheduled Caste candidates, said Chief Electoral Officer, Chhattisgarh Reena Babasaheb Kangle on Monday. The election model code of conduct has come to force with the announcement.

Kangale said that for the first phase of notification will be issued on October 13, the last date for filing nomination is October 20, the nomination papers will be scrutinised on October 21. The candidates can withdraw the nomination till October 23. The poll will be held on November 7 in 20 assembly constituencies.

She adds, the second phase of notification will be issued on October 21, where the candidates can file the nomination till October 30th. The date of scrutiny of nomination is October 31. The candidates can withdraw the nominations on November 2. The polling will be held on November 17th. The votes will be counted on December 3 for both the phases.

She adds, in the first phase the polling is scheduled for Assembly constituencies (from 71 to 90) having 20 seats will have 5,303 polling centres. In the second phase the polling will be held (Assembly constituencies 01-70) in 18,806 polling centres. The total number of electors in Chhattisgarh stands at 2.03 crore. The number of women electors is 1,02,39,410 while men is 1,01,20,830. The service voters are 19,839. The state has an Elector-Population ratio of 67.02 percent and gender ratio is 1,012.

Kangale said that as compared to Assembly election-2018 there has been a 9.5 percent increase in the number of electors. It was 1.85 crore earlier. The number of electors with physical disability stands at 60,955, the third gender 790 and 17 Non-Resident Indians have registered as voters. The total electors in the age group of 18-19 years is 7,23,771. The electors above 80 years stands at 1,86,215 and those having completed 100 years of age are 2,462 electors.

The CEO said that in total 90 assembly constituencies, the state has 24,109 polling booths out of which 3,227 are in urban areas and 17,693 are in rural areas. In each constituency there will be 10 'Sangwari polling centres' manned by an all women team, five model polling centres, one differently able and one youth centres. During the last assembly polls a total of 45 sub polling centres were included. The possibility is that in polling centres where the electors cross 1,500 as prescribed, sub polling centres will be allocated.

Kangale pointed out that from 50% of the polling centres, live webcasting will be done on the polling day. All necessary prior permissions have to be taken for the election campaign. The expense limit for any candidate has been fixed upto Rs 40 lakh. The total EVM and related machines available for polling in the state is 1,32,108. Different mobile applications to facilitate electors are being made available during the poll period. Even complaints can be lodged against the candidates.