Polling For Simultaneous Lok Sabha And Assembly Elections Begins In Arunachal

(MENAFN- IANS) Itanagar, April 19 (IANS) Voting for the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh began on Friday morning under heavy security blanket, officials said.

The voting, to elect two Lok Sabha members and 50 MLAs, began across 2,226 polling stations at 7 a.m. and would continue till 5 p.m.

A total of 8.92 lakh voters, including 4.54 lakh women, will decide the electoral fate of 133 candidates contesting for the 50 assembly seats, and 14 candidates vying for the two Lok Sabha seats.

Of the total 60 Assembly seats in the state, BJP candidates in 10 seats including Chief Minister Pema Khandu (Mukto seat) and Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein (Chowkham seat), have been elected unopposed.

The BJP has fielded candidates in all the assembly seats while the opposition Congress put up 19 nominees. The National People's Party (NPP) is contesting for 20 seats, NCP (14) and the People's Party of Arunachal has 11 candidates in fray.

In the Arunachal West Parliamentary seat, eight candidates are in the contest including Union Earth Sciences Minister Kiren Rijiju and state Congress president Nabam Tuki. Sitting BJP Lok Sabha member Tapir Gao and state Congress vice-president and former minister Bosiram Siram are among six candidates contesting from the Arunachal East seat.

With the deployment of 70 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) (6500 personnel), and thousands of state security forces, elaborate security arrangements have been made to hold peaceful polling in the state, officials said.

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