After nearly one month of acrimonious campaigning, the elections to the eleventh Assembly of Meghalaya will be held tomorrow in 59 of the 60 constituencies in 12 districts.
The polling would not be held in Sohiong constituency in East Khasi Hills district following the death of UDP candidate Horju Donkupar Roy Lyngdoh, who died on February 20 due to cardiac arrest.
A total of 369 candidates, including 36 women, are contesting the elections. In the 2018 Assembly polls, 329 candidates, including 32 women, had fought the elections.
The total number of voters in the State is 21,75,236 and out of them 10.99 lakh voters are female voters and 10.68 lakh voters are male voters.
A team of over 19,000 election officials have left for the 3,419 polling stations in 59 constituencies across the State.
The movement of polling parties to the polling stations has started since yesterday.
In South Garo Hills, the first polling party of the Rongcheng polling stations left early morning yesterday as they had to trek eight kilometres to reach the polling station from the last motorable point.
Polling officials had to sail a boat to reach the Kamsing polling station under Amlarem constituency which has only 35 voters.
The polling will commence at 7 am. As a measure to encourage early voting, the Election Commission will give five early voters’ medals in every polling station.
Carrying and using mobile phones, cordless phones, wirelesss phones within 100 metres perimeter of polling stations and inside polling booths during the polling is prohibited.
Only security personnel, polling officials, poll observers are allowed to carry mobile phones which they will have to keep in silent mode.
To boost voter participation, the Election Department has launched Mission 300 where five polling stations in each constituency have been identified, where the voter turnout is less than the State average. In the 2018 elections, the average turnout was 86.90 per cent.
The Election Commission of India has deployed 119 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in Meghalaya to smoothly conduct the Assembly polls in the State.
The BJP and the Congress have put up 60 candidates each, while the ruling NPP has fielded 57 candidates. The Trinamool Congress has fielded 56 candidates, UDP 46, HSPDP 11, PDF 9, Gana Suraksha Party one, Garo National Council two, Janata Dal (United) three, Republican Party of India two, Republican Party of India (Athawale) six, Voice of the People Party 18. In all 44 independent candidates are also contesting the elections.
The campaign for the elections saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing two election rallies in Shillong and Tura while Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda addressed many election rallies in different parts of the State. Several Union ministers, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and many BJP leaders and MPs from outside the State campaigned for the party.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also addressed election rallies in the State.
Congress leaders who included Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, Sachin Pilot, Salman Khurshid Gaurav Gogoi, AICC National Spokesperson Alka Lamba, and several other party leaders, former union minister and ex-MP of the party also campaigned for the party candidates.
Counting of votes will be held on March 2 in 13 counting centres across the State which include 12 in the district headquarters and one in Sohra civil sub-division.
