The notification for the first phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly polls will be issued Tuesday following which filing of nominations will begin, state Chief Electoral Officer Subrat Sahoo said.

The state will have polls in two phases on November 12 and November 20 and votes will be counted on December 11.

The first phase of polling covers 18 seats spread across eight naxal-affected districts-Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma, Kondagaon, Kanker, Narayanpur and Rajnandgaon.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 12 of the 18 seats.

In a statement issued Monday, Sahoo said that in the first phase, 31,79,520 voters, comprising 16,21,839 men, 15,57,592 women and 89 third-gender voters would be able to exercise their franchise.

He informed that the final date for filing nominations is October 23 and scrutiny of nominations would be completed the next day, adding that nominations can be withdrawn till October 26.

Prominent candidates expected to contest from the BJP in the first phase include Chief Minister Raman Singh, who is sitting MLA from Rajnandgaon, and ministers Kedar Kashyap and Mahesh Gagda, legislators from Narayanpur and Bijapur respectively.

Of the 18 seats going to polls in the first phase, 12 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories.

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