77.09 lakh voters to decide fate of 61 candidates in 5 LS seats in Assam, 1,21 lakh young voters to participate

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 25, 2024

Altogether 77,09,276 voters will decide the fate of 61 candidates in five constituencies of Assam during the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday.

During the second phase, the voting will be conducted in 9,133 polling stations of Nagaon, Darrang-Udalguri, Diphu, Silchar and Karimganj Lok Sabha constituencies from 7 am. Of the total polling booths, 8,227 are in rural areas while 473 are women-managed, 70 are model polling stations and 12 will be PwD-managed pooling booths.

Of 61 candidates, state minister Parimal Suklabaidya, former BJP national secretary and sitting MP Dilip Kumar Saikia, former state minister and AGP leader Phani Bhushan Choudhury, former minister and sitting MP Pradyut Bordoloi, Congress leader and noted lawyer HRA Choudhury, TMC leader Radheshyam Biswas are contesting for the second phase of polls

Karimganj constituency witnessed the highest number of candidates, with a total of 24, including 19 independents, while Diphu has only five candidates in the fray.

 “All arrangements have been completed for the conduct of the second phase of the election in a free, fair, safe and peaceful manner. We are keeping strong vigil on law and order, expenditure etc,” Assam chief electoral officer (CEO) Anurag Goel told reporters here on Thursday.

“As a major push for conducting free and fair elections, live monitoring and webcasting has been arranged for monitoring of poll day proceedings as per ECI’s direction. Live webcasting will be carried out from 4,577 polling booths across five constituencies,” Goel said.

“More than 43 thousand poll personnel, excluding police and paramilitary forces, have been dispatched with GPS-tracked EVM carrying vehicles to the polling stations The poll parties were dispatched to 937 remote polling booths yesterday and they are likely to reach their destination today. The poll parties have been sent to 8,169 polling booths today,” Goel said. 

143 companies of state and Central paramilitary Forces (CMPF) have been deployed on poll duty during the second phase of the poll, he said.

“Voter-wise, Darrang-Udalguri is the largest Lok Sabha constituency of the state with 22.09 lakh voters and Diphu is the smallest constituency with 9.01 lakh voters.

Of the total 77,09,276 voters, 38,78,667 are male, 38,30,439 are female, 170 are transgenders, 61,548 PwD, and 15,683 are visually-impaired voters,” he also said.

34,548 voters above 85 years old and 862 voters above 100 years old are also likely to exercise their democratic rights in the second phase of elections.

“1,21,769 first-time young voters of 18-19 years old are also participating in the democratic process,” he added.

In the first phase of polls held on April 19, over 78% voter turnout was recorded in five constituencies –Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur.

The ruling BJP currently holds nine seats, Congress three, while AIUDF and an independent each have one seat from the state in the outgoing Lok Sabha.