GUWAHATI: Voting is currently taking place in seven Lok Sabha seats in the Northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur.
The voting process started at 7 am on Friday in the Darrang-Udalguri, Duphu, Silchar, Karimganj, And Nagaon seats of Assam along with Tripura East and Outer Manipur.
Voters from the northeastern states, along with those from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jammu & Kashmir, will be electing their representatives to the lower house of the Indian Parliament using electronic voting machines. This voting process will continue until 5 pm on April 26.
In the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections, 1,210 candidates from national and regional parties, as well as some independents, are contesting for 88 Parliamentary seats across 13 states and union territories.
Meanwhile, 61 candidates are competing for the five seats in Assam.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded candidates in all five parliamentary seats in Assam that are up for election in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
In the Darrang-Udalguri constituency, the incumbent BJP MP Dilip Saikia is mainly competing against Madhav Rajbangshi from the Congress party and Durgadas Boro from the Bodoland Peoples' Front.
In the Diphu constituency, the main electoral contest is between Amarsing Tisso of the BJP and Joy Ram Engleng of the Congress.
Likewise, in the Silchar constituency, the BJP candidate Parimal Suklabaidya is up against Surya Kanta Sarkar from the Congress and Radheshyam Biswas from the Trinamool Congress.
The Congress party is hopeful of a positive outcome in the Karimganj and Nagaon constituencies.
In Karimganj, the oldest political party in India has nominated Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury to contest against Sahabul Islam Choudhury from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Kripanath Malla from the BJP.
Meanwhile, the incumbent Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi is running for re-election from Nagaon. He faces competition from Aminul Islam of the AIUDF and Suresh Borah of the BJP, among others.
In the Tripura East constituency, the BJP has backed the TIPRA candidate Kriti Singh Devbarma, who is contesting against Rajendra Reang of the CPI-M.
Similarly, in Outer Manipur, the BJP has supported Kachui Timothy Zimik of the Naga People’s Front against Alfred Kanngam S Arthur of the Congress.
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