Voting underway for first phase of Assam panchayat polls in 16 districts

The first phase of panchayat polls in Assam is currently underway. 16 administrative districts, will see a contest between the coalition partners the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)-- along with others.

Districts in the north-eastern state which are voting today are- Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Tinsukia, Dibrugrah, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat, Majuli, Golaghat, Nagaon, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Morigaon, Kamrup Metro and Kamrup. These together comprise of 27 election districts.

Over 43,515 contestants are fighting for 15,899 posts. the BJP and the AGP, who are the ruling allies, are contesting the elections separately.

Among the contestants, 881 are in fray for 251 zila parishad (district panchayat) member seats, 3,935 for 1,304 anchalik panchayat (intermediate panchayat) member seats, 4,493 for 1,340 gaon panchayat (village panchayat) president posts and 35,423 for 13,040 gaon panchayat member seats.

As many as 14077 polling centers have been created for the local body elections.

An unprecedented security arrangement has been put in place by the administration to avoid any kind of untoward incident during the highly mercurial elections.

The second phase of rural polls will be held on December 9. The votes will be counted on December 12.