Guwahati: With two phases of polling for 21 Lok Sabha seats in northeast India passed almost peacefully with a higher percentage of voter turnout than the national average, Assam is waiting for polls in four Parliamentary constituencies during the third phase of voting scheduled for May 7.
Altogether 94 Parliamentary seats belonging to 12 states and union territories will go to polls in the 3rd phase, where Gujarat electorates will vote for all 26 representatives to 18th Lok Sabha along with Karnataka (14 seats), Maharashtra (11 seats), Uttar Pradesh (10 seats), Madhya Pradesh (8 seats), Chhattisgarh (7 seats), Bihar (5 seats), West Bengal (4 seats), Goa (2 seats), Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (2 seats) and Jammu & Kashmir (1 seat).
A total of 1,351 nominees belonging to national and regional political parties (including a few independent candidates) will seek electoral mandates in this phase, where the counting of votes will take place on 4 June (after four more phases of polling on 13, 20, 25 May and 1 June) and the results of general elections are expected the same day.
The 1st (19 April) and 2nd (26 April) phases covered 102 and 89 Parliamentary constituencies respectively, where the Election Commission of India revealed the voters turn out as around 65 and 67 per cent accordingly.
Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam recorded impressive polling from 75 to over 80 per cent in both phases. Even Nagaland, where six districts recorded zero voting, reported around 57 per cent polling.
Voters of Arunachal Pradesh successfully exercised their franchise to elect two MPs and 50 legislators with a turnout of around 67 per cent.
Mentionable is that 10 BJP candidates including State Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his deputy Chowna Mein had already won the race with no opposition candidates. Sikkim electorates also voted for 32 legislators along with one MP with more than 75 per cent turnout.
The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) put candidates in all ten Parliamentary seats of Assam in the last two phases.
The saffron party in the third phase nominates only one candidate (Bijuli Kalita Medhi for Guwahati LS constituency) and extends support to ally candidates namely Phani Bhusan Choudhury (Asom Gana Parishad) from Barpeta, Zabed Islam (AGP) from Dhubri and Jayanta Basumtary (United People’s Party Liberal) from Kokrajhar seat.
Former BJP leader Mira Barthakur Goswami (now in Congress) will put an electoral challenge to the saffron nominee along with other six candidates.
In Barpeta, the AGP legislator will face Deep Bayan (Congress), Manoranjan Talukdar (a CPM legislator) and others, whereas in Dhubri the AGP nominee will challenge sitting All India United Democratic Front MP Badruddin Ajmal, where Congress puts legislator Rakibul Hussain as its candidate in the westernmost constituency.
The nomination of sitting Kokrajhar MP Naba Kr Sarania was cancelled and now the UPPL nominee (a legislator) will primarily face electoral challenges from Garjan Mashhary (Congress) and Khampa Borgoyary (Bodoland People’s Front) in the Bodo-dominated constituency.