Voting has begun for the second phase of polling on 72 seats in 19 districts of Chhattisgarh. Ministers Brijmohan Agarwal, Amar Agarwal, Rajesh Munat, Cong state chief Bhupesh Baghel, TS Baba, and JCC chief Ajit Jogi are in the fray in this phase of the Assembly elections.

A total of 1079 candidates are contesting in the 72 constituencies of 19 districts in the state with an electorate of 1,54,00,596.

This is the last of the two-phase polls to the 90-member Assembly where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been in power for the last 15 years.

"Voting begun at 7 am in two polling booths of Bindranavagarh constituency (Gariaband district), while in the remaining 72 booths, polling started at 8 am," an election official said.

According to political analysts, the BJP and Conress together lost as many as 20-22 seats in 2013 polls due to the presence of BSP-CPI combine which had pocketed close to 38 per cent vote share. "The BSP may not have been able to win on its own but it turned out to be a spoiler in the game," said a former bureaucrat. Since the new alliance of JCC and BSP along with CPI ( minuscule presence) is complicating matters for both the BJP and Congress, this second phase is being fought keenly by both the major parties.

Although Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh's Rajnandgaon constituency saw voting last week, his prestige is also at stake in Tuesday's polling, as well as that of former chief minister Ajit Jogi.

The part of Chhattisgarh which is going to poll in the second phase behaves a little differently than Bastar. In Bastar belt, Jogi's JCC did not have much at stake but this region offers him high hopes —mainly the Bilaspur region with close to 30 seats.

This second and final phase will conclusively decide who is going rule Chhattisgarh for the next five years. Voters of Raipur division, Bilaspur division, Durg-Bhilai industrial belt and Surguja tribal region would be using their franchise on Tuesday.

Although Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh's Rajnandgaon constituency saw voting last week, his prestige is also at stake in Tuesday's polling, as well as that of former chief minister Ajit Jogi.

The part of Chhattisgarh which is going to poll in the second phase behaves a little differently than Bastar. In Bastar belt, Jogi's JCC did not have much at stake but this region offers him high hopes —mainly the Bilaspur region with close to 30 seats.

The first phase of polls was held on November 12 in eighteen constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts wherein over 76 per cent voter turnout was recorded.

The counting of votes will be held on December 11.