About 70 pc polling in Assam by-elections

Guwahati, Nov 7 : Approximately 70 per cent polling was recorded in the two Assembly constituencies where by-elections were held today with the voting coming to a peaceful end.

Preliminary reports said the polling percentage was likely to be about 70 per cent, though the exact figure would be available later.

People had queued up at the polling centres much before it commenced at 0700 hrs to exercise their franchise in the two constituencies of South Salmara and Dhekiajuli.

Polling ended peacefully at 1600 hrs amid tight security.

Para-military forces were deployed at sensitive centres.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been used for the by-poll in all the polling centres.

Altogether 175 polling centres were set up in Dhekiajuli, while polling was conducted in 158 centres in South Salmara.

The by-election had been necessitated following the election of the sitting MLAs to the Lok Sabha.

In Dhekiajuli, the contest is centred around AGP's Shiba Charan Sahu and Congress’ Bhimananda Tanti, while CPI(M)’s Gunadhar Sundi and AIUDF’s Lenin Basumatary could play spoilers.

The contest in South Salmara is between AIUDF’s Abdur Rahman Ajmal and Congress’ Wajed Ali Choudhury. While Dhekiajuli constituncy had returned an AGP member, South Salmara was held by the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in the last Assembly election.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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