Voting begins in five seats in Assam and one in Manipur; Sushmita Dev in fray

Guwahati: Voting began amid heavy security for the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections in six parliamentary constituencies of Assam and Manipur on Thursday.

Voters, the majority being women, queued up since early morning even before polling began at 7 am.

Polling started at 7 am and will end at 5 pm in five seats of Assam, while polling for Inner Manipur will end at 4 pm.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has deferred the polling date of the Tripura East parliamentary constituency to April 23 from April 18 citing law and order problem.

A total of 61 candidates in six Lok Sabha seats are in the fray and a total of 77,65,122 voters will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of the contesting candidates.

Voting began at 10,292 polling stations including 8,992 booths in Assam and 1,300 in Manipur.

Adequate security measures have been made at all polling stations and nearby areas.

In Assam around 160 companies of Central paramilitary forces have been deployed.

The second phase of voting has begun in five parliamentary constituencies in Assam – Karimganj, Silchar, Autonomous District, Nowgong and Mangaldoi.

A total of 68,36,496 voters, comprising 35,21,244 males, 33,15,071 females and 181 from the third gender category will vote from five Lok Sabha seats.

Sitting Congress MP Sushmita Dev, Biren Sing Engti, AIUDF MP Radheshyam Biswas, Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Bhubaneswar Kalita, deputy speaker of the Assam Assembly Kripanath Mallah, BJP MLA Rupak Sharma, former Assam minister Pradyut Bordoloi and former militant leader Horen Sing Bey are among the 50 candidates contesting in the second phase of the elections in Assam.

Re-polling has also begun at several polling booths in the region.

The first phase of elections in five seats of Assam was held on April 11 and a voter turnout of 78.27% was recorded.

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