The Chhattisgarh assembly elections will be held in two phases
The notification for the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly polls will be issued on Tuesday, after which filing of nominations will begin, state chief electoral officer Subrat Sahoo said. Elections will be held in two phases on November 12 and 20, and votes will be counted on December 11.
The first phase covers 18 seats spread across eight Naxal-affected districts -- Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma, Kondagaon, Kanker, Narayanpur and Rajnandgaon.
In the 2013 assembly elections, the Congress won 12 of the 18 seats.
In a statement on Monday, Mr Sahoo said that in the first phase, over 31 lakh voters, comprising 16 lakh men, 15 lakh women and 89 third-gender voters would be able to cast their vote.
He said the final date for filing nominations is October 23; the papers will be checked the next day, and nominations can be withdrawn till October 26.
Some of the prominent candidates expected to contest from the BJP in the first phase include Chief Minister Raman Singh, who is a legislator from Rajnandgaon, and ministers Kedar Kashyap and Mahesh Gagda, legislators from Narayanpur and Bijapur, respectively.
Of the 18 seats in the first phase, 12 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and one for Scheduled Castes.