74% voter turnout in four seats marks end of Lok Sabha polls in Assam

Polling was held in the four constituencies of Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Dhubri in Assam on Tuesday.

The Lok Sabha elections in Assam came to an end with polling in four of the 14 seats in the state in the third phase on Tuesday.

First time voters standing in queue and showing their ID Cards during the 3rd phase of polling during Lok Sabha Election 2019 in Guwahati on Tuesday. (ANI)

Election Commission officials said the voter turn out in the third phase was 74.05%. It was 78.27 in the first phase of polling on April 11 and 81.20% in the second phase on April 18.

“There have been some reports of EVM malfunction,” said MC Sahu, Chief Electoral Officer, Assam adding the instances of machines malfunctioning were within the permissible limit of one to one and a half percent. “They were readily replaced,” he said.

The Election Commission said there was a boycott in one polling station in Baksa district over development work demanded by voters.The polling station had 821 voters who chose not to vote as a mark of protest.

Five constituencies had gone to the polls in each of the first two phases of the seven-phase elections.

In the backdrop of sharp divisions as the state updates the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and BJP’s push for the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, identity politics dominated the campaign while development too was an issue.

The third phase polling will decide the fortunes of the regional parties like the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bodoland People’s Front, two allies of the ruling BJP contesting in Barpeta and Kokrajhar respectively.

In Kokrajhar, which mostly crisscrosses through the Bodo Territorial Administrative Districts, Naba Saraniya, independent sitting MP and a former commander of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is hoping for a repeat of polarization of the 70 percent non-Bodos vote in his favour.

The BPF has fielded Pramila Rani Brahma while UG Brahma, former Rajya Sabha MP from the Bodo community is also in the fray from the United People’s Party (Liberal).

Much is at stake for Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in the Muslim majority districts of Dhubri and Barpeta. The party is contesting just the three seats which it had won in 2014. Ajmal, the sitting MP from Dhubri is confident that his support base among majority Bengali speaking Muslims will help him prevail over Congress’ Abu Taher Bepari a former MLA in Dhubri.

“Here most people have voted for Chacha (Ajmal). People are worried about NRC and how there is an attack with everyone calling us Bangladeshis,” said Ali Sadik, who lives in Kalapakani Char, a riverine island close to the Indo-Bangladesh border in Dhubri.

In Barpeta, the AIUDF’s Rafiqul Islam is facing a tough contest from Congress’ Abdul Khaleque for the majority Muslim vote which has made it an interesting triangular contest with the AGP’s Deepak Das in the fray.

“We are in a dilemma since the BJP has allied with the AGP again. So in Barpeta where there is only AGP candidate, we voted for the Hindu Bengali candidate who is contesting from a smaller party. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is a big issue for us,” said Amrit Lal, a Bengali speaking Hindu. The proposed amendment of citizenship laws has support among large number of Bengali Hindus in Assam.

The BJP, meanwhile, seems confident in Gauhati where it had benched its three time sitting MP Bijoya Chakravarty to field Queen Ojha. She is up against Bobeeta Sharma of the Congress. Upmanyu Hazarika, a prominent activist is also in the fray as an independent candidate.

“We voted for the person who made our lives easier. You know how Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done so much work,” said K Deka, a businessman minutes after former prime minister Manmohan Singh left after casting his vote in Dispur in Guwahati.

“It is high stake contests especially for the regional players. The results in Kokrajhar may have an impact on the fortunes of the BPF. Similarly, if the AIUDF performs badly, it may lead to a shift in the political narrative in the state,” said Sushanta Talukdar, a political commentator. “CAB is a big issue on these constituencies,” he said.

(With inputs from Smriti Kak Ramachandran in New Delhi)