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By-poll to Majuli assembly constituency in Assam recorded around 32.40 per cent of voter turnout on Monday until 11 am.
The voting began at 7 am.
“Polling has so far been peaceful. No untoward incident has been reported from any of 203 polling stations,” an Election Commission official said.
An estimated electorate of 1,33,227 is eligible to exercise their franchise in the byelection. Out of the total, 67,819 are male and 65,408 female.
The candidates in the fray are the ruling BJP candidate Bhuban Gam, the opposition's joint nominee Chittaranjan Basumatary of the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Bhaity Richong of the SUCI(C).
The election to the constituency was necessitated following the resignation of Union Minister for Shipping, Ports and Aysuh Sarbananda Sonowal who was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on September 27.
The former Chief Minister was elected to the state legislative assembly from Majuli constituency for two consecutive terms in 2016 and 2021.
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As a major push for conducting free and fair elections, live monitoring and webcasting have been arranged in all the 203 polling stations of the constituency, of which 164 are main and 39 are auxiliary polling stations while 812 polling personnel have been deployed for election duty.
Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed at each polling station for security measures and to ensure a conducive atmosphere for the smooth conduct of polls.
All possible precautionary measures have been taken to ensure that all polling stations follow COVID-19 safety protocols strictly for the safety of the voters and the election officials. Each polling station will be sanitized and facilities of thermal scanning, hand sanitizers, face masks are also made available at the polling stations.
The option of postal ballot facility has been extended to senior citizens above the age of 80 years, PwDs, COVID-19 suspect or affected persons, in addition to the persons employed in essential services.
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