Manipur Assembly Elections: Voting for first phase poll begins in 38 seats

Imphal: Voting for the first phase of elections in Manipur began at 7 am in 38 Assembly constituencies.

The weather was clear as people starting coming out to cast votes in the morning.

Covering Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur districts in the valley areas and Churachandpur, Kangpokpi in hill districts the first phase of poll was vied by 173 candidates.

Voting will continue till 4 pm. A total of 12,09,439 voters including 5,80,607 male, 6,28,657 female and 175 transgender voters will exercise their franchise in 1,721 polling stations.

In the first phase 381 polling stations will be completely manned by all women polling personnel.

Four Assembly Constituencies viz, 13-Singjamei, 14-Yaiskul, 15-Wangkhei and 58- Churachandpur will be manned by all women polling teams. One polling station in 59-Saikot was manned completely by PwD polling personnel.

All the 6,884 polling personnel and security personnel had reached the polling stations on Saturday.

The first phase will decide the fates of Chief Minister, N Biren, Deputy CM Y Joykumar, Speaker, Y Khemchand. BJP will contest in 38 seats while Congress will contest in 34 seats.

The Congress party expelled its candidate, S Joy at Wangoi on Saturday. JD(U) has 28 candidates, NPP 27, Shiv Sena-7, RPI(Athawale), NCP 6, LJP (Ram Vilas)-3, Kuki National Assembly-2, Kuki People's Alliance-2 CPI 1 and Independent-18.

Postal ballots for service electors were to all 13,274 electors electronically. For security purpose the movement of EVMs were tracked with the help of e-Traccar App. (UNI)