The election to the 74 civic bodies—32 municipal boards and 42 town committees—across the State on Monday recorded over 73 per cent polling, the State election department officials said on Monday. The election to the 74 municipal boards and town committees in Assam have been dubbed by the political parties as semi-final before the next round of State Assembly elections, scheduled for early next year.
In 2009, the last urban body polls in Assam have been swept by the Congress, which has been in power in Assam since 2001, and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and BJP could manage to secure a distant second and third position respectively. On Monday elections were held in 1,748 polling stations across the State and there were 2,901 candidates belonging to different political parties and individuals in the electoral fray this time.
Assam State Election Commissioner HN Bora said that the elections passed off peacefully barring two incidents—one that occurred after an election official died in a polling centre in Tinsukia district due to illness and another incidents of public protests at Nagaon after some the voters found their names missing from the electoral rolls. Bora said that a total of 10,000 Government officials and employees have been engaged in the whole exercise to conduct the polls in a smooth way.