Assam records 78.23% polling in first phase

The first phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections in Assam on Thursday recorded an average 78.23 per cent of polling, election department officials said on Friday.

While Kaliabor constituency recorded the highest - 82.09 per cent - polling, Tezpur recorded 79.15 per cent. The Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency came third by recording 77.49 per cent polling, while Dibrugarh recorded 77.26 per cent voting.

The Lakhimpur constituency recorded 74.81 per cent polling, the officials said.

Polling started at 7 a.m. on Thursday in 9,754 polling stations in the five constituencies, officials said, adding that while officially ended at 5 p.m., officials allowed the last person in the queue to cast his or her vote.

There were a total of 76,03,458 eligible electorates for the first phase of polls in Assam, including 37,37,970 female and 154 belonging to third gender.

A total of 41 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of polls for five constituencies in Assam.

The Election Commission of India has deployed a total 180 companies of security personnel to ensure smooth polling across the 9,574 polling stations. Apart from this, a minimum of one constable has been deployed in every polling station, officials at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer here said.

Officials said that a total of 614 Micro Observers have been used in the first phase of polling on Thursday, besides 151 Flying Squad Teams (FST), 137 Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and 118 Video Surveillance Teams.

--IANS

ah/bc