Summary:
Even in the worst Maoist affected areas, Congress retained its position of eight seats, which it had won in 2013 elections, but also wrested four more seats from the BJP. Senior tribal leader and state Congress working president Amarjeet Bhagat won the Sitapur (ST) seat.Similarly, in Bastar, Congress candidates have established comfortable leads in eleven out of 12 constituencies except Dantewada where a BJP candidate Bhima Mandavi is leading by a wafer thin margin. As the counting are entering the last phases by the end of the day. However, flow of results is very slow due to the newly-adopted procedure of taking up of counting of votes of a round only after completion and declaration of the earlier rounds.Prominent winner from Surguja region is TS Singh Deo who retained his Ambikapur seat with a margin of 33000 votes and is a potential candidate for chief ministership. Congress legislator party deputy leader Kawasi Lakma also retained his Konta (ST) constituency while the lone unreserved seat of Jagdalpur was wrested by the Congress candidate Rekchand Jain defeating BJP’s Santosh Bafna.BJP had unleashed propaganda about its initiatives for development in Maoist affected Bastar with construction of roads, communication network and other schemes but did not cause any impact among the voters..