Voting for 40 constituencies within the third and final phase of the continued assembly polls in Assam began at 7.00am on Tuesday.
People were seen queuing outside many polling stations; with the weather department predicting clear skies a high vote is predicted .
A total of 337 candidates (including 25 women) are contesting from 40 of the entire 126 seats within the state within the third phase. Over 7.9 million voters will cast their choose 11,401 polling stations (including in 316 all-women ones).
The key candidates for third phase include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (Jalukbari), BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass (Patacharkuchi), Cabinet minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya (BJP-Guwahati East), Cabinet minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury (Asom Gana Parishad—Bongaigaon) and minister Pramila Rani Brahma (Bodoland Peoples’ Front—Kokrajhar East).
In the third phase, the ruling BJP has 20 candidates within the fray while its alliance partner AGP and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) will contest from 13 and eight seats respectively. BJP and UPPL will have friendly contest in one seat
This is the second incident of poll irregularity reported in Assam during this assembly election.
Himanta Biswa Sarma (4th from left) and BJP Assam chief Ranjeet Dass (3rd from right) will test their electoral fate within the third and final phase of the electoral polls.
Assam set for final phase of polls on Tuesday in 40 assembly seats
Polling officials taking EVMs, VVPATs and other polling material to the polling booths from tough terrain, for the second phase of assembly elections in Dima Hasao on Wednesday.
In Assam’s Dima Hasao, 171 votes cast at booth that has 90 eligible voters
On the opposite hand, the opposition Congress is contesting 24 seats and its alliance partners All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) have 12 and eight candidatesin the fray respectively.
Over 45,600 polling personnel are on duty on Tuesday and 320 companies of security personnel are deployed to take care of law and order. Each polling place are going to be manned by a constable and residential guard.
In 2016, BJP won 11 of the 40 seats, Congress also won 11, AIUDF got 6, AGP won 4 and BPF got 8. But unlike last time when BPF was a part of the BJP camp, the party has now switched sides and joined the Congress grand alliance while the saffron party has engaged with UPPL.
“The interesting contest of the third phase would be witnessed within the eight seats in Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR). Last time BPF had won of these seats,” said Solomon Islary, professor of politics at Kokrajhar-based Bodoland University.
“This time they need a contest at hand with UPPL, which is a component of the BJP alliance and came to power within the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in December along side the saffron party. what percentage seats both these parties win or lose could decide which alliance will form subsequent government,” he added.
In 2016, the 40 seats getting to polls within the third phase had recorded 87.31% voting.
The first phase of polling persisted March 27 for 47 seats had recorded 79.97% voting and within the second phase persisted April 1 for 39 seats, the figure was 80.96%. Assam features a total of 126 assembly seats.
