A little over 60 per cent voters cast their votes for the by-election to the lakhimpur lok Sabha and Baithalangso legislative Assembly constituencies on Saturday. “Polling started around 7 am in both the constituencies. The polling remained peaceful in all the polling stations. There were some reports of technical snag in some EVMs in some of the polling stations, which have been sorted out locally,” said an election department official while adding that the overall poll per cent remained 60.83. The counting of votes will be held on November 22.
It may be mentioned here that there a total of 16,91,313 electorates were expected to cast their votes across 1,200 polling stations in lakhimpur lok Sabha constituency and and Baithalangso legislative Assembly constituency.
There are a total of eight candidates in the electoral fray for the two constituencies this time including five in the fray for the lakhimpur lok sabha constituency and three for the Baithalangso legislative Assembly constituency.
While the BJP had fielded party MlA Pradan Baruah in the seat, the Congress has put up senior party member Dr Hema Hari Pegu as their candidates in the constituency. Besides these two, CPI has fielded Amiya Kumar Handique while the SUCI has fielded Hem Kanta Miri as the party candidate in the constituency. Former BJP legislator from Doomdooma constituency, Dilip Moran has also filed his nomination as an Independent candidate for the lakhimpur lok Sabha constituency.
On the other hand, BJP has fielded Dr Mansing Rongpi in Baithalangso constituency. The Opposition Congress had put up Rupon Sing Ronghang in the constituency. Another candidate, Rajen Timung has also filed his nomination as Independent Candidate from Baithalangso constituency.
While the lakhimpur lok Sabha seat fell vacant after former Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal relinquished his membership from the lok Sabha to become the Chief Minister of Assam earlier this year, the Baithalangso seat fell vacant after Congress legislator Mansing Rongpi resigned from the Assam legislative Assembly to join the BJP.
