Raipur, Dec 19 (PTI) Polling for 15 urban bodies in Chhattisgarh, including four municipal corporations, will be held on Monday. Simultaneously, bypolls will be held in 15 wards of different urban bodies. Over 1,393 candidates are in the fray, an official said.

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Apart from the four municipal corporations, five municipal councils and six nagar panchayats will also go to the polls.

Counting of votes will be taken up on December 23, he added.

All eyes will be on Durg, the home district of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, where three municipal corporations and one municipal council are going to the polls.

Apart from the ruling Congress and opposition BJP candidates, many Independents and rebel candidates are also in the poll arena.

The general elections will be held in Birgaon (Raipur district), Bhilai (Durg), Risali (Durg), and Bhilai-Charauda (Durg) municipal corporations.

The five municipal councils to go to the polls are Khairagarh (Rajnandgaon), Baikunthpur (Korea), Shivpurcharcha (Korea), Sarangarh (Raigarh) and Jamul (Durg).

The six Nagar Panchayats are Bhairamgarh (Bijapur), Bhopalpatnam (Bijapur), Narharpur (Kanker), Maro (Bemetara), Prem Nagar (Surajpur) and Konta (Sukma).

“Preparations have been done for the polling to be held from 8 am to 5 pm on Monday. Polling parties have started reaching their destinations amid tight security. In view of COVID-19, healthcare personnel have also been deputed at polling booths”, a state election commission official told PTI.

Polling will be held through ballot papers.

Over 1,393 candidates are in the fray for the general elections to urban bodies and the bypolls.

A total of 8,04,187 voters, including 4,00,219 men, 4,03,918 women and 50 from the third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise, the official said.

For the general elections to urban bodies, 1,000 polling stations have been set up.

A total of 35 polling booths are set up for the byelections, he added.

He said 4,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure peaceful voting, while 12,000 officers and employees have been roped in for the poll duty.

Healthcare personnel will also remain present at all polling stations to avoid any emergency-like situation given the coronavirus pandemic.

All the voters have been advised to wear face masks and follow social distancing, he said.

Sanitisers are kept at all the polling booths. Voters will have to sanitize their hands before entering the polling station and after leaving it, the official added.

Voters can use 18 kinds of identification proofs.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)