Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh registered 76.44 per cent polling on Friday for elections to 50 Assembly constituencies amid minor violence in militancy-affected Longding district.
The overall poll percentage is likely to go up as the tally was yet to be counted, officials said. The officials said 65.46 per cent voters also cast their votes till 5pm for the two Lok Sabha constituencies, polling for which were simultaneously conducted.
Polling was low in the morning (23.86 per cent at 11 am) but it picked up to 56.19 per cent at 1 pm. Rains in some areas also affected the turnout in the hilly state.
Additional security forces were rushed after an incident of stone pelting between workers of two political parties was reported at Niausa village in Longding district in the morning. Initially there was a report of firing but the same was denied later by election officials.
A total of 10 BJP MLAs including Chief Minister Pema Khandu were elected unopposed earlier and polling for the remaining 50 seats was conducted on Friday. The counting of votes is scheduled on June 2.
Poll battle:
The ruling BJP, which put up candidates in all 50 seats, believe that their fight is against its allies NPP and NCP and not against the Opposition Congress, which is contesting only in 19 constituencies. The NPP put up candidates in 20 seats, NCP in 12 and People's Party of Arunachal in 11 seats. BJP is highlighting the infrastructure development work done by Modi government and the Centre's tough stand while countering China's claim over Arunachal Pradesh as it seeks to retain power in the frontier state.
Khandu, who got elected from Congress in 2014, defected to BJP along with MLAs in 2016 giving the saffron party its first government in the frontier state. Khandu-led BJP government got re-elected in 2019 with 41 seats while several legislators belonging to JD-U and NPP also switched over to BJP later.
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