JOIN USAfter the record turnout in the first phase of Assembly elections in Assam, the lower and central region of the state on Monday recorded more than 82% polling in the second and final phase.
The polling took place in 61 constituencies of the total 126 seats in the state legislative assembly amid reports of stray violence from different parts of the state.
The Election Commission (EC) sources added that the final figure might even cross 85%, which will be an all-time highest turnout in any election in Assam.
Polling started from 7 am and was supposed to end at 5 pm but hundreds of people were standing in the queue to cast their votes, thus the Election Commission decided to allow voting till 8 pm, official sources said.
There are a total of 1,04,35,277 voters eligible to cast their ballot in the second phase. Of these, 50,440,51 voters are women and 22 are third gender.
There are 525 candidates in the fray and 48 of them are women. Polling was held in 12,699 polling stations across the state.
The polling process got delayed in several constituencies due to malfunctioning of different EVM unit, which were replaced, the official said.
Stray incidents
At least one person died and several others were injured in sporadic violence during the last phase of Assam polling.
An aged person was killed when CRPF troopers, deployed at a polling station in Safakamar area in Sarbhog constituency, resorted to baton charge to disperse two clashing groups soon after voting commenced in the morning.
Similarly, the security forces deployed at a polling station at Nagarbera resorted to blank firing after clashes broke out between voters and the security forces. However, no one was in the firing.
Similar incident has been reported from Raha constituency in Central Assam.
In Samaguri area, journalists were allegedly attacked by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters and a DSNG van of a private TV channel was also damaged. In the same area, the BJP workers also complained that some Congress workers attacked the vehicle of Jitu Goswami, the BJP candidate for Samaguri constituency in Nagaon district, during the polling.
Meanwhile, former prime minister and Congress leader Manmohan Singh cast his vote at the Dispur Government High School, located in Dispur area of Guwahati. However, his wife Gurcharan Kaur did not come to cast her vote.
Singh hoped that people will vote for the Congress keeping in mind the 15 years of stability that the Tarun Gogoi regime provided the state. Singh is Rajya Sabha member from Assam. Both the ruling Congress and the BJP and its allies blamed each other of trying to rig the polls.