Imphal: Voting is underway across 38 assembly seats in the first phase of Manipur election. Voting will continue till 4 pm. A total of 12,09,439 voters including 5,80,607 male, 6,28,657 female and 175 transgender voters will exercise their franchise in 1,721 polling stations.
The weather was clear as people started coming out to cast votes. Covering Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur districts in the valley areas and Churachandpur, Kangpokpi in hill districts, a total of 173 candidates are in the fray in the first phase.
In the first phase 381 polling stations will be completely manned by all women polling personnel.
Four assembly constituencies viz, 13-Singjamei, 14-Yaiskul, 15-Wangkhei and 58- Churachandpur will be manned by all women polling teams.
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One polling station in 59-Saikot was manned completely by PwD polling personnel.
All the 6,884 polling personnel and security personnel had reached the polling stations on Saturday.
The first phase will decide the fates of chief minister N Biren Singh, deputy CM Y Joykumar, Speaker Y Khemchand.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed the government in Manipur in 2017 with the support of the National People’s Party (NPP), Naga People’s Front (NPF) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). However, this time the BJP decided to go solo and is contesting all 60 seats alone.
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In the first phase, BJP will contest in 38 seats while Congress will contest in 34 seats.
The Congress party expelled its candidate, S Joy at Wangoi on Saturday. JD(U) has 28 candidates, NPP 27, Shiv Sena-7, RPI(Athawale), NCP 6, LJP (Ram Vilas)-3, Kuki National Assembly-2, Kuki People’s Alliance-2 CPI 1 and Independent-18.
Postal ballots for service electors were to all 13,274 electors electronically. For security purpose the movement of EVMs were tracked with the help of e-Traccar App .
Agencies
