Brisk balloting in Assam bypolls

Brisk voting took place Saturday for the byelections in Assam's three assembly constituencies - Silchar, Lakhipur and Jamunamukh, officials said.

The polling started at 7 a.m. in almost all the 588 polling stations across the three polling stations, barring two polling stations under Jamunamukh constituency where voting could not start due to technical snags in the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Silchar recorded 18 percent polling till 9 a.m., while Lakhipur recorded 22 percent polling in the first two hours of polling. In Jamunamukh, 26 percent of ballots had been cast till 9 a.m., authorities said.

Byelection for Silchar was necessitated after Congress legislator Sushmita Dev's election to the Lok Sabha.

The Lakhipur seat fell vacant after the death of sitting legislator and former minister Dinesh Prasad Goala, while the Jamunamukh seat was vacated by AIUDF leader Sirajuddin Ajmal after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Barpeta.

As many as 25 candidates are in the fray - 12 are contesting in Silchar, five in Lakhipur and eight in Jamunamukh.

A total of 509,689 electors including 244,543 females are eligible to cast their votes in 588 polling stations in Saturday's bypoll.

While there are 206,573 voters in Silchar constituency, including 101,686 females, there are 137,398 eligible electors, including 65,598 women, in Lakhipur constituency.

In Jamunamukh assembly constituency, there are 1,65,718 eligible voters out of which 77,259 are women.

Besides this, there are 1,456 service voters in the three legislative assembly constituencies.

A total of 16 additional companies of security forces have been deployed to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls in the three legislative assembly constituencies.