Arunachal Pradesh’s two seats - Arunachal Pradesh West and Arunachal Pradesh East - will go to polls on Thursday in the first phase of elections. Along with the Lok Sabha elections, Arunachal Pradesh’s 57 assembly constituencies will also witness simultaneous assembly elections.
The polling teams were scheduled to reach the voting stations on Wednesday evening.
As many as 45 companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) have been deployed along with 7,000 state civil police personnel with most of the security apparatus being deployed in the insurgency hit regions of Tirap, Changland and Longding districts.
Seven candidates, including one woman, are contesting from the Arunachal West Lok Sabha, while five are contesting from the Arunachal East Lok Sabha seat.
For the assembly elections, as many as 181 candidates are in the fray with 11 of them being women.
The ruling BJP has already won three assembly seats unopposed - Kento Jini from Along East constituency in West Siang district, Taba Tedir from Yachuli seat in Lower Subansiri district and Phurpa Tsering from Dirang seat in West Kameng district.
As many as 13,262 polling personnel have been deployed at 2,202 polling booths, including 518 polling stations where the polling officials had to reach on foot.
{{/usCountry}}As many as 13,262 polling personnel have been deployed at 2,202 polling booths, including 518 polling stations where the polling officials had to reach on foot.
{{/usCountry}}This time, the state will also see 11 polling stations exclusively for women.
Luguthang polling booth under Mukto constituency in Tawang district is the highest polling station located at an altitude of about 13,583 feet.
The state has 281 vulnerable polling booths and 662 critical polling stations.
The BJP has fielded candidates in all the remaining 57 assembly seats while the Congress is contesting in 46 seats, the NPP in 30 seats, JDU in 15 constituencies, JDS (12), PPA (9) and the All India Party (AIP) in one seat.
There are also 11 independents in the fray for the assembly polls in the state.