Sensitive States of the North East, including Manipur and Tripura, besides Assam witnessed peaceful polling on Friday in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. Manipur, where polling was held under high presence of security personnel, the turnout was a high 77 per cent and one incident of EVM damage was reported. The State had witnessed violence in some areas during the first phase of polls on April 19.
On Friday, voting was held in the remaining parts of the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha constituency at 857 polling stations, spanning 13 Assembly segments in eight districts, officials said. Over 4.84 lakh people are eligible to vote in this phase.
Fifteen assembly segments of the Outer Manipur Lok Sabha constituency went to the polls in the first phase on April 19 along with the whole of the Inner Manipur seat.
Four candidates are in the fray in Outer Manipur — NPF’s K Timothy Zimik, Congress’s Alfred Kanngam Arthur, and Independents S Kho John and Alyson Abonmai. The BJP has not fielded any candidate and is backing its ally, the NPF.
Security measures were significantly enhanced across all 13 assembly segments where polling was underway, with 87 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and 4,000 state police personnel deployed to ensure free and fair elections.
During the first phase of elections, parts of the Outer Manipur seat, covering 15 assembly segments, and 32 assembly segments of the Inner Manipur, went to polls on April 19.
In the 2019 elections, the NPF emerged victorious, defeating the BJP by a margin of 73,782 votes.
The Tripura East Lok Sabha constituency recorded a voter turnout of 79. 50 per cent as polling remained peaceful, an official said. Voters came out in large numbers to exercise their democratic right since morning.
Nearly 14 lakh voters in the constituency, including 6.94 lakh women and 13 persons of third gender, will decide the fate of nine candidates in the second phase of the Lok Sabha polls.
An estimated 70.06 per cent of 77,26,668 voters exercised their franchise till five pm in the five parliamentary constituencies of Assam.
The turnout was expected to increase as those in queue before 5 pm would be allowed to vote, they said. Polling began at 7 am and no untoward incident was reported so far. A total of 61 candidates are in the fray in the second phase.
Darrang-Udalguri Lok Sabha seat recorded the highest turnout of 72.9 per cent, followed by Nagaon (71.84), Karimganj (71.12), Diphu (69.62) and Silchar (53.06).
Assam Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya is pitted against Surya Kanta Sarkar of Congress in Silchar, while BJP’s Amarsing Tisso is contesting against Congress’s Joyram Engleng in Diphu.
Nagaon’s sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi is contesting against BJP’s Suresh Bora, while Karimganj’s BJP MP Kripanath Malla is pitted against Congress’s Hafiz Ahmed Rashid Choudhury. In Darrang-Udalguri, the main contest is between BJP MP Dilip Saikia and former Congress MP Madhab Rajbongshi.
