Nagaland, Meghalaya Polls: Rijiju appeals people to vote in record numbers

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday appealed to the people of Nagaland and Meghalaya to come out and vote in large numbers.

Voting for the 60-member assembly in Nagaland and Meghalaya has begun amid tight security arrangements.

Rijiju took to Twitter and said, "I appeal the people of Nagaland and Meghalaya, especially the youngsters to come out and vote in record numbers." (sic)

While the two states have a 60-member house each, voting will be held only for 59 constituencies in both.

In Meghalaya, the election has been countermanded in Williamnagar in the wake of the killing of an NCP candidate Jonathon N Sangma in an IED blast, while in Nagaland, Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party Chief Neiphiu Rio has been declared elected unopposed from the Northern Angami-II constituency.

With consecutive victories in Manipur and Assam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) eyes a clean sweep in the two states, while these polls will emerge as a platform for the Congress party to regain its hold in the North-Eastern region.

Aggressive campaigning has been witnessed in the last few weeks from both key contenders, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi respectively.

A total of 361 candidates are in the fray, while over 18.4 lakh voters can exercise their voting rights. Out of the 3,000 polling booths, webcasting will be done at 193 polling stations, while 312 micro observers have been deployed.

Restrictions on the conduct of any exit poll and publication and dissemination of result of such exit poll have also been imposed till 4:30 PM tomorrow, reports suggest.

The results of the polls in the two states will be declared on Saturday, along with those of Tripura.

--ANI