The first phase of Panchayat polls in Assam is currently underway. Polling Began at 7 am today and will continue till 3 pm.
According to Assam State Election Commission (ASEC) 16 administrative districts, will see a contest between the coalition partners the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)– along with others, including the Congress, All India United Democratic Front and All India Trinamool Congress.
Districts in the north-eastern state which are witnessing voting today are- Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat, Majuli, Darrang, Golaghat, Nagaon, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Morigaon, Kamrup Metro and Kamrup. These together comprise of 27 election districts.
Strict security arrangement has been made by the ASEC to avoid any kind of untoward incident during the polls. Over one lakh security personnel have been deployed for the smooth conduct of the elections during the first phase.
In this year’s polls 796 candidates are contesting for 251 Zila Parishad Member constituencies, 3,799 candidates for 1,304 Anchalik Panchayat Member, 34,756 candidates are contesting for 13,040 Gram Panchayat Member constituencies and 4,155 candidates for 1,304 Gram Panchayat President.
A total of 97,45,709 voters will exercise their franchise in 14,077 polling booths to decide the fate of 43,515 candidates contesting in the four tier 15,899 constituencies.
