The four Northeastern States —Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur that went to polls on Thursday as part of the second phase of polling in the country recorded over 65 per cent polling.
While the polling for the lone lok Sabha seat in Nagaland recorded the highest 84.43 per cent, two lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh recorded 71 per cent of polling. Elections were held in one of the two lok Sabha seats in Manipur — Outer Manipur seat, which witnessed over 71 per cent polling till evening. Polls were also held for the two lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya — Shillong and Tura and it recorded 66 per cent of polling.
The polling percentage is likely to increase in all the four States as the election officials were still collecting the reports. Communication is a major bottleneck in all the four hilly States, where poll officials had to walk miles in some areas to reach the polling stations.
The lok Sabha polls in Arunachal Pradesh also coincided with Assembly elections for the 60-member House. On Thursday, elections were held for 49 seats out of the 60 State Assembly seats as 11 Congress candidates, including Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, have already been elected unopposed.
Altogether, 163 candidates are in the fray in the 49 Assembly seats in the mountainous State.
For the two lok Sabha seats of Arunachal Pradesh — Arunachal West and Arunachal East seats — there are 11 candidates in the fray this time. Altogether, eight candidates are vying in the Arunachal West seat but the contest is expected between sitting MP Takam Sanjoy of the Congress and former MP Khiren Rijiju of the BJP.
There are three candidates for the Arunachal East seat, but the fight is expected between Union Minister Ninong Ering of the Congress and former MP Tapir Gao of the BJP.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the Congress has been in power in the State since 1980 and is expected to win the Assembly polls. In the politically unstable State, the BJP was in power once in 2003 when the, then Chief Minister Gegong Apang of the Congress Government, switched flanks to the saffron party. The BJP Government, however, lasted just 42 days. In 2009, the Congress had won 42 seats in the Assembly.
Altogether 10 candidates are in the fray for the two lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya. Prominent among the eight candidates in the Shillong seat include sitting MP Vincent Pala of the Congress, former student leader Paul lyngdoh and church leader PBM Basaiawmoit.
For the Tura sea, it will be a direct fight between former lok Sabha Speaker and National People’s Party chief PA Sangma and Congress’ Daryl William Ch. Momin. Agatha Sangma, daughter of PA Sangma, had won the seat in 2009 on NCP ticket. She gave way to her father this time around by not contesting.
Meghalaya has 2,562 polling stations out of which 486 have been categorised as hypersensitive. Most of these polling stations are in militancy-hit Garo Hills. There are also 375 polling stations categorised as ‘sensitive’ in Meghalaya.
“The polls were held peacefully and there is no report of any untoward incidents. There were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs but we have replaced those and polls have been conducted smoothly,” said Meghalaya CEO P Naik.
In Manipur’s Outer Manipur lok Sabha seat, there were 10 candidates this time. Noted among them are the sitting MP Thangso Baite of the Congress, Gangmumei Kamei of the BJP, Kim Gangte of the Trinamool Congress and Chungkhokai Doungel of the NCP. Voting for the Inner Manipur lok Sabha seat will take place on April 17.