Bastar is one of 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. It is reserved for candidates belonging to Scheduled Tribes.
Bastar registered 66.04 percent voter turnout in Lok Sabha Election 2019, a gain of 6.77 percent from 2014. The total number of electors in the constituency is 1377946 while 909943 came out to exercise their franchise. While in 2014, the constituency registered 59.27 percent voter turnout. The total number of electors in the constituency was 1298032 while 769370 voted.
Considered one of the toughest constituencies to conduct elections in due to the prevailing security threat posed by Maoists here, there are eight assembly segments here - Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Bastar, Jagdalpur, Chitrakot, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta.
The first phase of voting in the lone Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh ended on April 11. The fate of seven candidates will be decided on May 23 when counting of votes takes place and the result is declared.
Here is the full list of candidates contesting the Lok Sabha election in 2019 from Bastar Lok Sabha constituency of Chhattisgarh:
| 1 | AAYTU RAM MANDAVI | Bahujan Samaj Party |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | DEEPAK BAIJ | Indian National Congress |
| 3 | BAIDU RAM KASHYAP | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 4 | RAMU RAM MOURYA | Communist Party of India |
| 5 | PANEESH PRASAD NAG | Ambedkarite Party of India |
| 6 | MANGALARAM KARMA | Akhil Bharat Samagra Kranti Party |
| 7 | SURESH KAWASI | Shivsena |
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election here, Dinesh Kashyap - son of Baliram Kashyap who had numerous terms as Bastar MP - defeated Congress' Deepak Karma by 1,24,359 votes. The elections - much like all elections before it - were conducted under a heavy security blanket. Over 40,000 security personnel were deployed even as Maoists called for a boycott.
The Maoist threat was omnipresent even before and during the 2009 Lok Sabha election and the voter turnout was 47.33 per cent. BJP's Baliram - the outright favourite - managed yet another win by defeating Congress' Shankar Sodhi. Violence erupted in some of the polling booths with Naxals firing upon security forces here on the day of voting.
Ballots, and not bullets, however, remain the most powerful weapon here.
