Campaigning for the first phase of Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh ended on Saturday evening, with voting scheduled to take place on November 7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, while other leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party spoke on religious conversion, deteriorating law and order, and corruption. The Congress based its campaign on the slew of welfare schemes of the Baghel government for farmers, women, tribals, and Dalits, and also attacked the BJP-led Centre for ‘handing over’ resources to ‘industrialist friends’. The first phase includes 20 seats in seven districts of the Naxal-affected Bastar division and four other districts. Polling in scheduled tribe constituencies will take place from 7am to 3pm, while the remaining seats will have polling from 8am to 5pm. Special arrangements are being made for polling in sensitive remote areas, with the use of helicopters to transport personnel and materials. In this phase, a total of 223 candidates, including 25 women, will be contesting for the votes of 40,78,681 voters across 5304 polling booths. The highest number of contestants are in Rajnandgaon constituency, while Chitrakot and Dantewada have the lowest number of candidates with seven each. Prominent candidates include State Congress chief Deepak Baij, former Chief Minister Raman Singh, and ministers Kawasi Lakhma, Mohan Markam, and Mohammad Akbar. The second phase of polls will take place on November 17, and the results will be counted on December 3.