A surge in rebel-linked violence in the Northeast region has overshadowed electioneering in Arunachal Pradesh, which goes to the polls on Thursday to elect a 60-member assembly.
The battle lines are drawn with the ruling Congress party locking horns with a battered Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and an equally scruffy Arunachal Congress, a regional formation, for political supremacy in the hill state.
"The voters have already made up their mind and the Congress is their sole choice," Chief Minister Gegong Apang claimed.
Some 684,000 voters are eligible to vote on Thursday in elections in what is described by authorities as one of India's most challenging ones in terms of logistics.
"Everything is in place and our officials have reached polling stations after long and tortuous trekking, some after eight days of walking through dense jungles," said D Bhattacharjee, the state deputy election chief.
The run-up to the polls in the state of 1.1 million was rather low-key with only Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressing two rallies.
The BJP was content with second-rung leaders like former Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand campaigning for the party.
The electioneering was devoid of any major issue with all the major parties harping on the clichéd theme of stability and good governance in a state where legislators are better known for their hop-skip-and-jump politics.
{{/usCountry}}The electioneering was devoid of any major issue with all the major parties harping on the clichéd theme of stability and good governance in a state where legislators are better known for their hop-skip-and-jump politics.
{{/usCountry}}"Most candidates were focusing on very trivial issues and the people are generally not very inspired by the level of politics here," said Tatak Dolo, a tribal youth leader.
In the assembly elections in 1999, the Congress won 51 of 60 seats. Eight legislators later joined the Congress with the lone opposition member being Gegong Apang.