elections
Representative photo. Image Credit - theberkshireedge.com

Polling began for the first phase of the parliamentary elections to elect the 17th Lok Sabha in as many as 14 constituencies across the north-eastern states at 7 am on Thursday.

Voting for the polls to 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly and 32-member Sikkim Legislative Assembly also began simultaneously at the same time on Thursday.

The 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of which polling began in Thursday are five constituencies from Assam—Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur; two Lok Sabha constituencies from Arunachal Pradesh –Arunachal West and Arunachal East, two Lok Sabha constituencies from Meghalaya—Shillong and Tura, one constituency in Manipur—Outer Manipur, the lone Lok Sabha constituencies from Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim and one of the two Lok Saba seats in Tripura.

A total of 146 candidates are in the fray for the 14 Lok Sabha seats voting of which began which includes 41 candidates for the five constituencies in Assam, 31 candidates for the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh, 26 candidates for two seats in Meghalaya, 18 candidates for one seat in Tripura, eight candidates for one seat in Manipur, 12 candidates for the lone seat in Sikkim, six candidates for the lone seat in Mizoram and four candidates for the lone seat in Nagaland.

There are 2,17,60,604 eligible voters in Assam as of now including 1,06,27,822 female voters.

While a total of 75,16,284 electorates are set to cast their votes during the first phase of polling in Assam on April 11, an estimated 68,36,494 voters will cast their votes in the second phase on April 18. A total of 74,07,824 voters set to cast their votes in the third phase of polling on April 23.

In Manipur, a total of 10,10,618 voters will cast their votes at 1562 polling stations located across 28 Assembly constituencies under 12 districts of the State.

In Nagaland, by-election for the Aonglenden Assembly constituency, while polling for the by-election for one seat will also be held in Mizoram on Thursday.

While Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya will have nine-hour voting due to early sunrise, sunset and a few other reasons, in the other five states of the region, it will be the normal 10-hour polling from 7 am to 5 pm.