Final phase of Indian state polls underway

Polling for the second phase underway in 51 Assembly constituencies in eight districts of Chhattisgarh on Thursday. The polling began at about 8 am in the state. Electoral fortunes of 687 candidates will be decided by 88,14,228 electorates. Prominent leaders in the electoral battle include former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, his wife Renu Jogi, BJP state president Vishnu Deo Sai, Congress state president Dhanendra Sahu, Deputy Speaker Badridhar Diwan and Home Minster Ram Vichar Netam. Voting will be held for six-scheduled caste (SC), 15 scheduled tribe (ST) and 30 unreserved seats. There are 12,073 polling stations across the eight districts Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Raigarh, Sarguja, Koria, Jashpur and Janjgir and Champa. About 2608 booths have been classified as sensitive and 355 booths as hyper sensitive. Besides the major parties, there are 235 independent candidates in the fray.