KOHIMA: After more than a week of multiple events going on a feverish pitch, the campaigns for the legislative assembly elections of Meghalaya and Nagaland have come to an end on the evening of February 25.
Leaders of many political parties took part in the polling campaigns on the last day. These included Himanta Biswa Sarma, Mukul Sangma and Mahua Moitra among others. The Election Commission of India had enforced the deadline for the campaigning process at 4 PM on Saturday.
The voting for the legislative assemblies of Nagaland and Meghalaya will take place on Monday, February 27. The voting will start at 7 AM and continue till 4 PM on Monday
The dispatch of polling officials as well as equipment for the elections in both states also began on Saturday. Both Nagaland and Meghalaya have some far-flung areas that require multiple hours of trekking. Some of the polling stations can be reached via boats and many more need a lot of off-roading experience.
The Chief Electoral Official of the state of Meghalaya FR Kharkongor announced that the dispatch of the polling parties started on Saturday. Polling will take place in a total of 3419 polling stations distributed across 59 constituencies of the Meghalaya Assembly. The polling parties with the responsibility of holding the voting in the Rongcheng Polling Station of the west South Garo Hills district were the first team to leave on the morning of Saturday. This team will have to trek for a distance of 8 kilometres to reach the polling station from the last point on the road that can be reached by any vehicle.
In Nagaland too, voting will take place across 2315 polling stations distributed across 59 constituencies of the state. Over 13 lakh votes will decide 59 winners out of 183 candidates belonging to 12 political parties.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Nagaland mentioned that cameras will be installed at all the critical as well as vulnerable polling stations of the state with capabilities of either webcasting or offline videography. He also announce that a total of 305 companies of Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed in Nagaland to ensure free and fair elections.
Also Watch: