Assam: Peaceful Polling Concludes for 4 LS Seats, 79.79% Voter Turnout Recorded

Assam's third and final phase of parliamentary elections saw a 79.79% voter turnout in four constituencies. Dhubri recorded the highest turnout at 85.43%. There were no major incidents of violence or malfunctioning EVMs. Key candidates include Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) from Dhubri and Bijuli Kalita Medhi (BJP) from Guwahati. The final polling figures will be available on Wednesday.

Polling was peaceful in four parliamentary seats in Assam's third and final phase of elections on Tuesday with a voter turnout of 79.79 per cent recorded, officials said. The final polling figure will be available on Wednesday, they said.

Dhubri recorded the highest polling percentage at 85.43, followed by Barpeta at 79.62, Guwahati at 75.67 and Kokrajhar at 75.55.

''An estimated 79.79 per cent of the 81.49 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the four parliamentary constituencies in Assam. Polling ended at 5 pm with no untoward incident reported during the day,'' an election official said.

A total of 965 Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) components -- control units, VVPATs and ballot units -- were replaced due to malfunctioning, another official said.

Most of the glitches were noticed during the mock polling and subsequently, polling was held smoothly, he said. Altogether 81,49,091 voters, including 40,48,436 women and 111 belonging to the third gender, were eligible to exercise their franchise in 9,516 polling stations.

Altogether 47 candidates are in the fray in the final phase of elections. The prominent candidates in the fray are AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal, seeking a fourth successive term from Dhubri, and his rival and sitting Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain.

Eight-time Asom Gana Parishad MLA and former minister Phanibhushan Choudhury and his rivals sitting CPI(M) MLA Manoranjan Talukdar and Congress candidate Deep Bayan from Barpeta were contesting. Former BTC deputy leader Kampa Borgoyary of the Bodo Peoples' Front, United People's Party, Liberal (UPPL) Joyanta Basumatary and Congress candidate Garjen Mushahry are fighting in Kokrajhar. Two women contestants of Guwahati are BJP's Bijuli Kalita Medhi and Congress' Mira Borthakur Goswami.

Dhubri has the highest number of electors at 26,63,987, while Kokrajhar has the lowest at 14,94,404 in this phase.

In the first phase of polls held on April 19, 78.25 per cent of the electors exercised their franchise to decide the fate of 35 candidates in Kaziranga, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur constituencies.

An estimated 81.17 per cent of voters cast their votes in the second round of elections on April 26 to decide the fate of 61 candidates in Karimganj, Silchar, Diphu, Nagaon and Darrang-Udalguri.

In the 2019 parliamentary polls, Assam recorded an overall voter turnout of 81.55 per cent.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP held nine seats, Congress three, AIUDF and an independent one each from the state.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)