61 candidates to vie for five LS seats in state

CAPF to man 1,220 of 9,133 critical polling stations, besides police personnel

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The 61 candidates in the poll fray for the second phase of polling for the Lok Sabha election 2024 are all set to battle it out in their respective constituencies, with their fates to be sealed tomorrow, April 26. The polling in the five parliamentary constituencies will begin at 7 a.m. and conclude by 5 p.m.

The five constituencies are Darrang-Udalguri, Diphu, Karimganj, Silchar, and Nagaon. As per the directions of the ECI, the state Election department has completed all arrangements for the polling tomorrow.

Polling will be held at 9,133 polling stations, and most of the personnel engaged in the polling process will have reached their respective polling stations by Thursday evening. The remaining officials will reach their polling places assigned to them by tonight. All vehicles used to transport the EVMs are equipped with GPS systems for real-time monitoring, as per the guidelines of the ECI.

Out of the 9,133 polling stations in the second phase, 1,220 are considered critical. The critical polling stations will be manned by the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and micro-observers, apart from the polling personnel assigned to these polling stations.

In the polling to be conducted tomorrow, 473 polling stations will be managed by women, 12 by people with disabilities (PwDs), 4,745 will have webcasting facilities, and 90 of these are model polling stations.

Altogether, 77,09,276 electors will seal the fate of 61 candidates in five parliamentary constituencies in the state, where polling will be conducted in the second phase. Of the total electors, 38,78,667 are male voters, while 38,30,439 are female voters, and the third gender comprises 170 voters. The five constituencies and their respective total number of electors are: Darrang-Udalguri with 22,09,314 electors; Diphu with 9,01,032 electors; Karimganj with 14,12,148 electors; Silchar with 13,69,578 electors; and Nagaon with 18,17,204 electors.

Out of the total electors in tomorrow’s polling, 862 are aged more than 100 years, 34,548 are aged 85-plus years, and young voters aged 18–19 years are 1,21,769.

In the second phase, the highest number of candidates is from Karimganj, with 24 contesting candidates. This is followed by Nagaon with 13 candidates, while Darrang-Udalguri has 11, Silchar 8, and Diphu 5 contesting candidates in the fray.

Regarding the preparations for the second phase tomorrow, Chief Electoral Officer, Assam, Anurag Goel, said, “We are ready to conduct the polling tomorrow. A total of 10,796 ballot units, 9,133 control units, and 9,133 VVPATs will be used for the polling. In case of any technical glitch in any EVM, we have a sufficient number of additional EVMs to replace the defective machines. For the conduct of a free and fair election, 143 companies of security personnel, comprising central and state armed police, have been deployed.”

Appealing for peaceful voting tomorrow, Goel said, “I request all electors to come to their respective polling stations and exercise their franchise. The Lok Sabha election comes every five years, and people should participate in this festival of democracy.”

Like in the first phase of the polls, there are several high-profile candidates in the fray for the second phase. They are Dilip Saikia (BJP), Madhab Rajbangshi (Congress), and Durgadas Boro (BPF), the candidates for Darrang-Udalguri parliamentary constituency; Amarsing Tisso (BJP), Joy Ram Engleng (Congress), and J.I. Kathar (Independent) for Diphu parliamentary constituency; Kripanath Mallah (BJP), Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury (Congress), Sahabul Islam Choudhury (AIUDF)—candidates for Karimganj parliamentary constituency; Parimal Suklabaidya (BJP), Surya Kanta Sarkar (Congress), Radheshyam Biswas (TMC)—candidates for Silchar parliamentary constituency; Suresh Borah (BJP), Pradyut Bordoloi (Congress), and Aminul Islam (AIUDF)—all contenders for the Nagaon parliamentary seat.

Also Read: All 3 EVM units have their own microcontroller, ECI tells Supreme Court (sentinelassam.com)

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