Huge turnout of voters marked the lok Sabha polls in three north-eastern States of Assam, Tripura and Sikkim on Saturday even as Tripura beat the two other N-E States in terms of polling percentage.
While the three lok Sabha seats in Assam — Silchar, Karimganj and Diphu (autonomous Council) constituencies, which went to polls on Thursday, recorded 75 per cent of polling, the polling percentage for one of the two lok Sabha seats—Tripura East — went up to 82 per cent. The election to the lone lok Sabha seat in Sikkim also recorded 76 per cent polling.
Sikkim also had election to its 32-member State Assembly. While the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front is contesting in all the 32 Assembly seats, the BJP is contesting in 13 seats. Trinamool Congress had put up seven candidates for the Assembly polls in the State. Polling remained peaceful in all the states.Brisk balloting was recorded in three seats of Assam and in Tripura and Sikkim and people were seen queuing up before the polling stations across the three State to participate in the polling exercise.
While polling were held across 3698 polling stations in Assam, there were 1,490 polling stations in Tripura. In Sikkim, the electorates cast their votes across 538 polling stations.Assam’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijayendra said polling remained peaceful in all three seats. “There has been no report of any untoward incident from anywhere so far,” he said.
In a few polling stations, however, technical snags in electronic voting machines were reported. “There were reports of technical problems and we have replaced the faulty EVMS and poling resumed soon after,” he said adding that about 20 EVMs have been replaced.Authorities said 60 polling stations in Assam have been identified as sensitive and 8,880 Assam Police personnel and 204 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure smooth polling.
In Assam webcasting will be done in 68 polling stations.For the second phase of polls, 37 candidates are in the fray including sitting member Kabindra Purkayastha (BJP), Congress legislator Sushmita Deb and Kutub Ahmed Mazumder of the All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) in Silchar.
In Karimganj there were 15 candidates, including BJP’s Krishna Das, Congress’s lalit Mohan Suklabaidya and Radheshyam Biswas of the AIUDF are contesting. In Diphu, five candidates, including Congress’s sitting member Biren Singh Engti and the BJP’s Joyram Engleng, are likely to fight it out.
In Tripura, the main battle is expected between Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Jitendra Choudhury and Sachitra Debbarma of the Congress. The left has been winning the Tripura East seat for 10 times since 1952 while the Congress secured the seat five times.
A total of six candidates are in fray for the lone lok Sabha seat in Sikkim this time, which includes sitting MP Prem Das Rai (Sikkim Democratic Front), Akar Dhoj limbu (Congress), Nar Bahadur Khatiwara (BJP) and Kaushal Rai (AAP)