Nagaland, Meghalaya vote to elect new Assemblies today

Voting started at 7 am.

Situation in Meghalaya:

Long queues were seen in front of booths even before the scheduled start of polling, as voters in colourful attire assembled to cast their democratic choice.

The polling will end at 4 pm with over 21.4 lakh voters eligible to mark their choice to elect 59 members of the 60-member House.

Election to one of the seats (Sohiong) has been deferred with the death of a contesting candidate H.D.R. Lyngdoh on February 21. He was a former Home minister and a candidate of the United Democratic Party (UDP).

Altogether 369 candidates, including 36 women, are in the fray for the assembly election. The number of eligible women voters is 10.8 lakh, more than men.

The BJP and the Congress are contesting all the seats, opposition Trinamool Congress has 56 candidates, while the NPP has fielded 57 nominees.

Among other parties in the race are UDP (46 candidates), HSPDP (11), PDF (nine), Gana Suraksha Party (one), Garo National Council (two), Janata Dal-United (three), Republican Party of India two, Republican Party of India - Athawale (six) and VPP (18). Also 44 independent candidates are vying for seats in different constituencies.

Nagaland situation:

Voting for the Nagaland Assembly election began at 7 AM on Monday, with an electorate of over 13 lakhs eligible to choose their representatives from among 183 candidates.

Voting is being done to elect 59 members of the 60-strong state Assembly, with the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Kazheto Kinimi having won uncontested from the Akuluto constituency after the Congress nominee withdrew from the race.

Official sources told UNI 183 candidates are in the fray for the 59 seats of the state Assembly, where not a single woman has won from any of the constituencies till death.

However, four women feature among the candidates. Hekhani Jakhalu of NDPP is contesting from Dimapur-III, Rosy Thompson of Congress is the candidate from Tening seat, Salhoutuonuo of NDPP from Western Angami and Kahuli Sema of BJP from Atoizu.

The ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) is contesting in 40 seats and BJP in 20 seats.

The Congress has put up 23 nominees, the NPF is contesting from 22 seats, the Lok Janashakti Party (Ram Vilas) is fighting the polls on 15 seats, NPP and NCP on 12 each.

Republican Party of India (Athawale) is fighting nine seats, Janata Dal (United) in seven, RJD in three seats and the CPI and Rising People's Party in one seat each.

There are also 19 independent candidates. The constituencies with the highest number of candidates each are Tening in Peren district, Sanis in Wokha district and Tehok in Mon district.

Among the total 13,17,634 voters, are 7,983 Service electors. The total male electorate is 6, 37,311, while female electorates number 6, 38, 473.

There is not a single ‘Third Gender’ elector, but 6,970 voters have been designated as person with disability. There are 36,403 senior citizens (80+) voters in the e-roll.

There are 2315 Polling Stations, of which 531 are located in urban areas, and 1784 in the rural belt. Nineteen polling stations are being managed by all-women teams.

The lowest number of voters (8,302) is in Mokokchung town seat, while Ghashpani-I has the highest number of electors (74, 395).

In violence-torn Nagaland, where a political party activist was murdered on February 22, the Nagaland Police has ordered strict security measures. 305 companies of para-military forces from different Central Police organisations including CRPF, BSF, CISF, SSB and RPF have been deployed.

Besides, police forces from some other states including Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Sikkim are on duty.

The maximum security deployment has been made in the violence-ravaged districts Wokha, Mokokchung and Zunheboto.