Voting in Meghalaya, Nagaland peaceful, no demands for re-poll: EC

Voting for the Meghalaya and Nagaland Assembly polls went off peacefully on Monday, the Election Commission (EC) said, adding that there was no demand for a re-poll from the two northeastern states.

While both states have 60 Assembly seats, polling was held on 59 seats each, the EC pointed out.

Polling for the Sohiong seat in Meghalaya was adjourned due to the death of one of the candidates. Since the Akuluto seat in Nagaland remained uncontested with only one candidate, no election was required there.

"Polling across 3,419 polling stations in Meghalaya and 2,291 in Nagaland went off peacefully today.... Advance planning and extensive monitoring by the commission led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar...ensured smooth conduct of elections in the two states with no re-poll reported in any of the 5,710 polling stations," the EC said.

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In 2018, 11 re-polls were held in Nagaland and one was held in Meghalaya.

Polling was also held in the Erode (East) Assembly seat in Tamil Nadu and the Sagardighi seat in West Bengal, where bypolls had to be scheduled to fill up the vacancies due to the death of the incumbent MLAs, as also in the Ramgarh Assembly seat in Jharkhand due to the disqualification of the incumbent legislator.

Voting in the Kasba Peth and Chinchwad Assembly seats in Maharashtra was held on Sunday. No voting was required in the Lumla Assembly seat in Arunachal Pradesh with the seat declared uncontested.

The EC said there was meticulous planning on its part for the hilly regions of Meghalaya, involving travelling through a mountainous terrain, crossing rivers and inaccessible areas.

There were 74 non-motorable polling stations with two riverine polling stations -- one at Kamsing in the Amlarem civil sub-division and the other at Kalatek under the Sohra civil sub-division.

There were a number of polling stations in the Garo Hills region where the polling parties had to travel across makeshift bamboo bridges and double-decker root bridges.

Meghalaya had 183 polling stations under the "shadow zone". In some of these areas, runners were used to convey messages between the polling parties and the sector officers. A total of 264 police radio stations with 19 repeater stations were set up through the police network to cover these shadow areas, the EC noted.

Kumar acknowledged the momentous efforts of the polling teams that travelled through such difficult terrains to ensure that no voter was left out.

In West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, an ex-gratia amount of Rs 15 lakh was given to the family of a polling official who died in a road accident while on duty.