Guwahati: More than 72 per cent electorates on Monday exercised their franchise in five Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam to elect a new government in New Delhi, albeit technical glitch. At least 33 EVMs malfunctioned and authorities had to replace 29 faulty machines.
Apart from a minor scuffle between the Congress and AGP workers in Samuguri area of Koliabor Lok Sabha constituency, on the issue of the Congress’ alleged fake voting, the polling was peaceful, free from the shadow of separatist outfits. However, ULFA has expelled Hira Sarania for contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Kokrajhar constituency as an independent.
With a large turnout of voters in both rural and urban areas, long queues were seen in front of the 8,588 polling stations one hour before voting began at 7 am. While, 6.5 lakh first time voters were enrolled in the electoral roll this year, many came to their homeland only to cast their votes.
Meanwhile, high turnout of 85 per cent was recorded for Tripura West Seat.
Chief Electoral Officer, Asutosh Jindal said the 85 per cent of the electorate voted while polls were incident free. He stated there were long queues before 200 booths till 7 pm.
