Guwahati: Bogged down by repeated announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party leaders to bring in the citizenship amendment bill, an angry AGP founder-president and two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Thursday boycotted the polls by not casting his vote. However, his daughter and other family members went to cast vote.
Mr Mahanta who was in Nagaon said, “The AGP was formed after six-year long agitation for which 855 people had sacrificed their lives. Thereafter Assam Accord was signed. The BJP is stubborn on imposing the citizenship amendment bill, which nullifies the Assam Accord. People have expressed their opposition to it but failed to persuade central govce3rnment. What should we do ? This is how I am registering my protest.”
Clarifying that he has not asked people to boycott poll but appealed them not to vote for the party or candidate who is supporting the citizenship amendment bill, Mr Mahanta said, “I have appealed to the people to go for consent vote in the wake of ongoing move to bring in citizenship amendment bill against the wish of the people in Assam.” Mr Mahanata said that his wife and former MP Jayshree Mahanata had also decided not to cast her vote. Meanwhile, more than 73 per cent of the 69,10,592 electorate exercised their franchise in five parliamentary constituencies of Assam in the second phase of polling on Thursday.
The polling was held in 8,992 polling booths in Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonmous Districts (ST), Nowgong and Mangaldoi constituencies to decide the fate of 50 candidates in fray.
There has been no report of any untoward incidents so far, the EC official said.
Mangaldoi recorded the highest polling of 75.71 per cent followed by Nagaon 75.07 and Autonomous district —both at 69.51 per cent, Silchar with 71.79 and Karimganj with the lowest at 71.41 per cent.
The EVM glitches were reported initially from several booths in all the five constituencies but polling resumed after they were replaced, the official said.
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