2018 Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly election


The 2018 Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly election was held to elect members to the Legislative Assembly of the Indian State of Chhattisgarh. The election was held in two phases for a total of 90 seats; the first for 18 seats in South Chhattisgarh was held on 12 November 2018, and the second for the remaining 72 were held on 20 November.
The INC got a landslide victory winning 68 seats against the ruling BJP's 15 seats, and consequently formed the government after 15 years as opposition party. Incumbent Chief Minister Raman Singh resigned on 11 December, the day of counting and declaration of result, "taking the responsibility for this defeat". Elected to the Assembly from Patan, INC leader Bhupesh Baghel took office on 17 December as the third Chief Minister of the State.

Background

The tenure of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly ends on 5 January 2019.

Schedule

The Election Commission of India announced the election dates on 6 October 2018. It said the election would take place in two phases: phase one on 12 November in the left-wing extremism-affected areas that encompassed eighteen constituencies, and on 20 November in the remaining constituencies. The Commission also announced that the Model Code of Conduct came into effect with the said announcement, and that the results would be declared on 11 December.

Opinion polls

Opinion polls showed a tough competition between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress, but the alliance between Janta Congress Chhattisgarh and Bahujan Samaj Party also showed similar numbers to that of the former two.

Polling

According to the Election Commission of India, a total of 4,300 booths for the region's registered 1.62 million women and 1.55 million male voters were set up for the first phase of polls. The first phase of election, in 18 constituencies, saw a voter turnout of 76.42 per cent according to the Commission, an increase from 75.06 per cent in 2013. This came despite calls from the Naxalites in the region to boycott the election. A total of 125,000 police and paramilitary personnel were posted across the 18 constituencies, which were spread over the Naxalism-affected districts such as Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon. However, the polls saw two major disruptions. An improvised explosive device went off in Katekalyan, in Dantewada, before voting began. In the Bijapur district, an encounter between the naxalites and the 204th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force's COBRA unit, left ten naxalites killed and five CRPF personnel injured.
The campaigning ahead of the second phase concluded on 18 November. In an incident of another IED blast, three security personnel were killed that day in the Bheji and Elarmadgu villages of Sukma district. However, voting on 20 November went "peaceful and incident-free". A turnout of 76.34 per cent was reported by the Commission, while updating the figures of the first phase to 76.39 per cent. The Commission set up 19,336 polling stations for this phase of polling.
Overall, a total of 76.35 per cent was reported across the State, a minor drop from 77.40 per cent in 2013. 38 constituencies, most of which fell primarily in rural areas, reported a turnout of more than 80 per cent. Kurud reported the highest turnout at 88.99 per cent, followed by Kharsiya at 86.81 per cent, while Bijapur reported the lowest at 44.68 per cent. Ahead of counting and the declaration of result on 11 December, 28 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces were posted to guard rooms were the EVMs were kept.

Exit polls

Most of the exit polls predicted a "tight finish" between the BJP and the INC.
Polling agencyBJPINCOthersLead
Polling agencyOthersLead
52350317
46350911
39450506
40440604
44400604
3948039
26600424
42410703
36500414
46370709
Poll of Polls41440503

Results

Seats and vote-share

The seat and vote share was as follows -

Elected members

#ConstituencyMemberParty
1Bharatpur-SonhatGulab KamroIndian National Congress
2ManendragarhDr. Vinay JaiswalIndian National Congress
3BaikunthpurAmbik Singh DeoIndian National Congress
4PremnagarKhel Sai SinghIndian National Congress
5BhatgaonParas Nath RajwadeIndian National Congress
6PratappurDr. Prem Sai Singh TekamIndian National Congress
7RamanujganjBrihaspat SinghIndian National Congress
8SamriChintamani MaharajIndian National Congress
9LundraDr. Pritam RamIndian National Congress
10AmbikapurT. S. BabaIndian National Congress
11SitapurAmarjeet BhagatIndian National Congress
12JashpurVinay Kumar BhagatIndian National Congress
13KunkuriU. D. MinjIndian National Congress
14PathalgaonRampukar Singh ThakurIndian National Congress
15LailungaChakradhar Singh SidarIndian National Congress
16RaigarhPrakash Shkrjeet NaikIndian National Congress
17SarangarhUttari Ganpat JangdeIndian National Congress
18KharsiaUmesh PatelIndian National Congress
19DharamjaigarhLaljeet Singh RathiaIndian National Congress
20RampurNanki Ram KanwarBharatiya Janata Party
21KorbaJaisingh AgrawaIndian National Congress
22KatghoraPurushottam KanwarIndian National Congress
23Pali-TanakharMohit RamIndian National Congress
24MarwahiAjit JogiJanta Congress Chhattisgarh
25KotaRenu JogiJanta Congress Chhattisgarh
26LormiDharmjeet Singh ThakurJanta Congress Chhattisgarh
27MungeliPunnulal MohleBharatiya Janata Party
28TakhatpurRashmi Ashish SinghIndian National Congress
29BilhaDharam Lal KaushikBharatiya Janata Party
30BilaspurSailesh PandeyIndian National Congress
31BeltaraRajnish Kumar SinghBharatiya Janata Party
32MasturiDr. Krishna Moorti Bandhi Bharatiya Janata Party
33AkaltaraSaurabh SinghBharatiya Janata Party
34Janjgir-ChampaNarayan ChandelBharatiya Janata Party
35SaktiCharan Das MahantIndian National Congress
36ChandrapurRam Kumar YadavIndian National Congress
37JaijaipurKeshav Prasad ChandraBahujan Samaj Party
38PamgarhIndu BanjareBahujan Samaj Party
39SaraipaliKismat Lal NandIndian National Congress
40BasnaDevendra Bahadur SinghIndian National Congress
41KhallariDwarikadhish YadavIndian National Congress
42MahasamundVinod Sevan Lal ChandrakarIndian National Congress
43BilaigarhChandradev Prasad RaiIndian National Congress
44KasdolShakuntala SahuIndian National Congress
45Baloda BazarPramod Kumar SharmaJanta Congress Chhattisgarh
46BhataparaShivratan SharmaBharatiya Janata Party
47DharsiwaAnita Yogendra SharmaIndian National Congress
48Raipur City GraminSatyanarayan SharmaIndian National Congress
49Raipur City WestVikas UpadhyayIndian National Congress
50Raipur City NorthKuldeep JunejaIndian National Congress
51Raipur City SouthBrijmohan AgrawalBharatiya Janata Party
52ArangDr. Shivkumar DahariyaIndian National Congress
53AbhanpurDhanendra SahuIndian National Congress
54RajimAmitesh ShuklaIndian National Congress
55BindranawagarhDamarudhar PujariBharatiya Janata Party
56SihawaDr. Lakshmi DhruwIndian National Congress
57KurudAjay ChandrakarBharatiya Janata Party
58DhamtariRanjana Dipendra SahuBharatiya Janata Party
59Sanjari-BalodSangeeta SinhaIndian National Congress
60Dondi LoharaAnila BhendiaIndian National Congress
61GunderdehiKunwer Singh NishadIndian National Congress
62PatanBhupesh BaghelIndian National Congress
63Durg GraminTamradhwaj SahuIndian National Congress
64Durg CityArun VoraIndian National Congress
65Bhilai NagarDevendra YadavIndian National Congress
66Vaishali NagarVidya Ratan BhasinBharatiya Janata Party
67AhiwaraGuru Rudra KumarIndian National Congress
68SajaRavindra ChaubeIndian National Congress
69BemetaraAshish Kumar ChhabraIndian National Congress
70NavagarhGurudayal Singh BanjareIndian National Congress
71PandariyaMamta ChandrakarIndian National Congress
72KawardhaAkbar BhaiIndian National Congress
73KhairagarhDevwrat SinghJanta Congress Chhattisgarh
74DongargarhDaleshwar SahuIndian National Congress
75RajnandgaonDr. Raman SinghBharatiya Janata Party
76DongargaonBhuneshwar Shobharam BaghelIndian National Congress
77KhujjiChhanni Chandu SahuIndian National Congress
78Mohala-ManpurIndrashah MandaviIndian National Congress
79AntagarhAnoop NagIndian National Congress
80BhanupratappurManoj Singh MandaviIndian National Congress
81KankerShishupal ShoriIndian National Congress
82KeshkalSant Ram NetamIndian National Congress
83KondagaonMohan MarkamIndian National Congress
84NarayanpurChandan KashyapIndian National Congress
85BastarLakheshwar BaghelIndian National Congress
86JagdalpurRekhchand JainIndian National Congress
87ChitrakotDeepak BaijIndian National Congress
88DantewaraBhima MandaviBharatiya Janata Party
89BijapurVikram MandaviIndian National Congress
90KontaKawasi LakhmaIndian National Congress