Guwahati, Nov 13 (PTI) Nearly 50 per cent of 9.1 lakh electors cast their votes in the first six hours of polling on Wednesday during by-elections to five assembly constituencies in Assam amid sporadic violence reported in some places, officials said.
According to the Election Commission, approximately 49.76 per cent of 9,09,057 electors, including 4,54,963 women and 19 belonging to the third gender, exercised their franchise in the first six hours till 1 PM to decide the fate of 34 candidates.
There are also 2,617 service voters in these five constituencies, where polling is taking place according to pre-delimitation data, an official said.
Bypolls are taking place in Dholai (SC), Sidli (ST), Bongaigaon, Behali and Samaguri assembly constituencies as these seats fell vacant with the representatives of them winning the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Behali recorded the highest turnout of 55.6 per cent, followed by Samaguri at 51.2 per cent, Bongaigaon at 50.32 per cent, Sidli at 49.82 per cent and Dholai at 44.05 per cent, ECI data showed.
"Voting is going on peacefully so far and we have not received any adverse report. People started coming to their respective booths from as early as 5:30 am. Long queues of voters were seen outside polling booths in most of the places," Assam Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Goel told PTI.
He, however, said there were reports of "minor violence" in some places of Samaguri and Behali, but those took place on roads or areas far away from the polling stations, where voting is going on unaffected.
A police official said a complaint was received from Congress MP Rakibul Hussain, whose son Tanzil is a candidate in Samaguri, that a gang of miscreants went to his residence and threatened them with dire consequences.
"I will quit politics if BJP will attack me and my family like this. I have already sent a message to CM Himanta Biswa Sarma urging him to stop such threats," the MP told reporters after casting his vote.
Congress also alleged that its workers were threatened by BJP MP Ranjit Dutta at Behali.
Goel also said that there were reports of malfunctioning of EVMs in some booths during the mock polling, and those machines were replaced.
Another official said that reports of EVM malfunctioning were received from some polling stations after voting started. Those machines were immediately replaced as a sufficient number of units were kept in reserve.
Most of the contesting candidates have voted in their respective booths during the first two hours of polling.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to the people of Behali, Samaguri, Dholai, Bongaigaon and Sidli to come out and actively take part in the bypolls.
"Your voice matters and the choice you make will determine the course of your constituency's development in the coming days," he said in a post on X.
Voting began at 7 AM and is scheduled to conclude at 5 PM.
Around 9,000 polling personnel have been engaged to have a smooth election across 1,078 polling stations in the five seats.
Webcasting is being done from 592 polling stations, while 11 booths have been made as model polling stations and 14 are being managed by all-women staff.
A total of 15 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), comprising about 1,500 personnel, have been deployed in all the polling stations, supported by Assam Police.