Polling begins in 7 seats in Assam, Manipur and Tripura amid tight security

In Assam, 77,26,668 voters will decide the fate of 61 candidates who are in the fray for five seats - Diphu, Nagaon, Silchar, Karimganj and Darrang-Udalguri.

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People were seen queuing up outside polling stations more than an hour ahead of the official time for the start of polling at 7am. Voting will continue till 5pm, but is expected to go on for 2-3 hours more as all voters who reach polling stations before 5pm are allowed to cast their ballot.

"To ensure smooth and peaceful voting, 143 companies of security forces have been deployed in these 5 seats. I appeal to all voters to come out in large numbers and exercise their democratic right," Assam chief electoral officer Anurag Goel said on Thursday. Polling is taking place across 9133 booths in the state.

The role of Muslim voters, who are dominant in Nagaon and Karimganj, and are in sizeable numbers in Silchar and Darrang-Udalguri, will be crucial in this phase. In 2019, four of these five seats were won by BJP while Congress had won from Nagaon.

In Nagaon, sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi is facing a tough contest from BJP's Suresh Bora, who was earlier with the Congress. Aminul Islam of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), who is the sitting MLA from Dhing, has made this seat a triangular contest.

There are 24 candidates in Karimganj, which was a SC reserved seat earlier, but is now in the general category. Darrang-Udalguri has 8 candidates, including sitting BJP MP Dilip Saikia. Silchar also has 8 candidates and 5 candidates in Diphu.

In Manipur, where violence including firing, threats to voters, damage to EVMs and alleged rigging took place in the first phase of voting on April 19, security measures have been beefed up to ensure it does not recur.

Officials informed that 87 companies of central armed security forces have been deployed in addition to around 4,000 state police personnel to ensure law and order. Around 3,400 polling personnel are on duty in the second phase.

Four candidates are in the fray for polling to a portion of the Outer Manipur seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates. There are over 4 lakh voters in the 13 assembly segments where voting will take place on Friday.

"There will be 848 polling stations and an additional 9 special polling stations for people displaced by the ethnic violence in the state. There are 529 internally displaced voters in the second phase," chief electoral officer Pradeep Kumar Jha said.

In Tripura, polling will take place for East Tripura constituency in the second phase. A total of 13,96,761 people will cast their ballots across 1,664 polling centers, including a new polling booth in South Tripura for Bru migrants.

Though nine candidates are in fray in this constituency, the main contest would be between the ruling BJP candidate Kriti Devi Debbarma and opposition INDIA alliance candidate and former CPI(M) MLA Rajendra Reang. Kriti Devi is the youngest daughter of the late Kirit Bikram Kishore Manikya and elder sister of TIPRA Motha party founder Pradyot Kishore Manikya.

Returning officer for the seat, Saju Vaheed A, said adequate arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the polls.