Meghalaya recorded over 81 per cent polling while Nagaland saw nearly 86 per cent voter turnout in the assembly polls held on Monday.
The polling was held across 59 constituencies each in the two states. According to the latest Election Commission data, while Meghalaya saw 81.57 per cent polling, it was 85.90 per cent in Nagaland. Polling for 23-Sohiong (ST) AC in Meghalaya was adjourned due to the death of one of the contesting candidates. Since 31-Akuluto AC in Nagaland remained uncontested with only one candidate, no poll was required there.
Polling across 3419 polling stations in Meghalaya and 2,291 in Nagaland went off peacefully today.
The Election Commission said that no repoll was reported in any of the 5710 polling stations.
Polling was also held today in Erode (East) assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, Sagardighi in West Bengal where bypoll had to be scheduled to fill up the vacancies due to the death of a sitting candidate.
Polling was held in Ramgarh seat in Jharkhand due to the disqualification of the sitting member.
Voting in Kasba Peth and Chinchwad in Maharashtra was held on February 26.
No voting was required in Lumla seat of Arunachal Pradesh with the seat declared uncontested.
All efforts were made to cater to specific requirements in Nagaland and Meghalaya. To ensure the safe movement of polling officials in the South West Khasi Hills area, a team of the State Forest Deparment’s Wildlife Division was also deployed at Nongnah, a common track of elephants.
To ensure that no voter is left behind, a temporary polling station was set up for 309 voters in Ri-Bhoi District in the Leprosy Colony under 9-Nongpoh Assembly Constituency in Meghalaya.
The Election Commission’s thrust on inducement-free elections led to sustained efforts for election expenditure monitoring.
Due to the coordinated efforts of enforcement agencies in Meghalaya and Nagaland, both State and Central, extensive monitoring, marking of 34 expenditure-sensitive constituencies in Meghalaya and 42 in Nagaland and adequate deployment of field teams, both the States witnessed record seizures this time.
This was far above the seizures made in the entire duration of the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct in the Assembly Elections 2018. Over 23-fold increase in seizures as compared to Assembly Elections 2018 has been witnessed.
For the first time, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had set up a Camp Office in Kohima. There have been some big operations in Meghalaya and Nagaland by DRI and they seized heroin worth Rs 17.13 crore in East Khasi Hills and Rs 15.91 crore in Chumukedima District in Nagaland.
The total seizures as on February 27 in the three states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura amounts to Rs 169.64 Crore. In the bye-elections held in the states, seizures worth Rs 2.92 crore were done.
Nagaland witnesses high voter turnout. Polling for the Tripura Legislative Assembly was held on February 16.
Results of all three states and the bye-elections will be declared on March 2.
