Voting for two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam ends

Voting for two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam has ended and the counting of votes will start at 5 p.m. Thursday, an official said.

Although most of the legislators of the ruling Congress, its ally Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF) and three Independent legislators had cast their votes by afternoon, the election officials kept the polling open till 4 p.m. as per the rules.

The polling started around 9 a.m. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was the first to cast his vote for the party's first candidate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the official said.

The two other candidates in the fray are Santiuse Kujur of the Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) candidate Aminul Islam.

A senior Congress leader said that 49 MLAs have voted for Manmohan Singh, while 45 voted for Kujur.

Both the seats are likely to be won by the Congress considering the party strength in the 126-seat state assembly. While there are 79 MLAs of the Congress in the state assembly, its ally, the BPF has 12 legislators.

The main opposition AIUDF has only 18 MLAs in the present assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have five and nine seats, respectively, in the assembly -- but both parties have decided to abstain from voting.

State election officials said that results will be declared by Thursday evening.