Meghalaya assembly polls peaceful; over 75 per cent turnout recorded

More than 75 per cent of the 216 lakh electors in Meghalaya cast their votes on Monday till 5 pm and the polling was peaceful Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor saidThe figure is expected to increase as the polling continued for several hours after the scheduled time of conclusionThe ruling National Peoples Party NPP is contesting to retain power while the BJP Trinamool Congress and other regional parties are attempting to bring about a change in the government in the northeastern stateThe Congress and the BJP are contesting in 59 seats while the NPP has put up nominees in 56 constituencies the TMC in 57 and the UDP in 46 Though Meghalaya has a 60member assembly polling in Sohiong constituency has been adjourned following the death of one of the candidatesAt 5 pm over 75 per cent turnout was recorded In 200 odd polling stations in four districts voting is likely to go on till 9 pm Kharkongor said Polling is being held in a free and fair manner No untoward incident has been reported he saidMalfunctioning of EVMs was reported in a few polling booths but these were later fixed the CEO said Voting took place in 3419 polling stations of which 640 have been categorised as vulnerable and 323 as criticalOver 19000 polling personnel and 119 companies of CAPFs have been deployed across the state They have been backed by state policemen to maintain law and order the CEO saidAlso read Give change a chance Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge to Meghalaya Nagaland votersNPP supremo and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma is contesting from the South Tura constituency where he locked horns with militantturnedBJP leader Bernard MarakLeader of Opposition and TMC leader Mukul Sangma is contesting from two seats Songsak and Tikrikilla while his wife D D Shira is also in the fray The CEO also informed reporters that an Assam MLA had made a statement that residents of Assam in six police stations of Mawhati constituency along the disputed border will not be allowed to voteHowever the matter was resolved after governments of both states took cognisance of this he saidEnforcement agencies have made the seizure of drugs cash and freebies which was 20 times higher this year as compared to 2018 Seizure of over Rs 7418 crore was made since January 18 whereas the value of drugs seized was over Rs 33 crore and the value of cash was Rs 871 crore The seizure made in 2018 was Rs 115 crore only he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever