Voting for Arunachal Assembly & LS Elections Underway, Minister Rijiju, CM Khandu Cast Vote

Tezpur: Polling for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections began smoothly at 7 am in Arunachal Pradesh. Polling is underway for 60 Assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies in East and West of Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal Pradesh Governor Kaivalya Trivikram Parnaik, First Lady of Arunachal Pradesh Anagha Parnaik, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Pawan Kumar Sain and his sister-in-law Shweta Nagarkoti cast their votes in 13-Itanagar (ST) Assembly constituency.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju exercised his franchise at Nafra village in the newly created Bisom district. Chief Minister Pema Khandu casts his vote in the Mukto constituency in the Tawang district. The Chief Minister said that polling was going on peacefully in the state so far. A total of 8,86,848 persons cast their votes in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Arunachal Pradesh. The number of women voters in the state is 4,01,601. In Arunachal Pradesh, BJP candidate and incumbent MP Tapir Gao is contesting from the Arunachal Pradesh East Lok Sabha constituency while Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is contesting from the Arunachal Pradesh West Lok Sabha constituency.

This time the Election Commission seems to have given special priority to first-time voters. There are 46,144 voters in the age group of 18/19 years, 80-year+-old voters are 4,257 and centennial voters are 232. A total of 2,226 polling stations have been set up for voting. Pumao in the Longding district of the state has the highest number of voters at 1,462.

On the other hand, Malegaon in the Hayuliang Assembly constituency of Anjaw district has only one female voter. It may be noted that the Election Commission has set up webcasting facilities in 204 urban polling stations and 202 rural polling stations and 342 polling stations will have offline voting facilities.

Goods and polling teams have been taken by helicopter to places like Tali, Vijayanagar, Pipsorang, Taksing, Anini, Toting and other remote areas to reach the polling stations. A total of 153 women are handling the polling booths in the election. In comparison, 91 polling stations were manned by women in 2019. This time the State Election Commission has identified 480 polling stations as sensitive and they do not have access to phone or internet connectivity.