Voting for the second and final phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections started on Tuesday amid high security.A total of 1079 candidates are in fray the 72 constituencies of 19 districts in the state with an electorate of 1,54,00,596. This is the last phase of the two-phase polls to the 90-member Assembly .the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for the last 15 years.

"Voting begun at 7 am in two polling booths of Bindranavagarh constituency (Gariaband district), while in the remaining 72 booths, polling started at 8 am," an election official stated. The time of polling in 72 constituencies is from 8 am to 5 pm apart from in two polling booths- Amamora (booth no. 72) and Modh (no.76) in Bindranavgarh where polling is being held from 7 am to 3 pm due to the threat posed by Naxals, as he added.

Around 1.50 lakh security personnel have been deployed from corner to corner of the state to ensure peaceful polling. In the second phase, districts like Gariaband, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Kabirdham, Jashpur and Balrampur are Naxal-affected areas and extra vigil was being maintained there.

The polling will take place in central and north Chhattisgarh, where 72 each from the BJP and Congress, are in the fray. There are 119 women contestants while the maximum number of candidates are in Raipur city south constituency where 46 nominees are in the fray. The least number of candidates are in Bindranavagarh seat 6.