Guwahati: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday announced dates for assembly elections in the three Northeast states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
The ECI said polling for the assembly elections in all the three Northeast states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura will be held in one phase.
“Polling for the assembly elections in Meghalaya and Nagaland will be held on February 27. The polling for the assembly elections in Tripura will be held on February 16,” ECI stated in a press relesae.
The counting of votes in all the three Northeast states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura will be held on March 2.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said, “Our teams would be ready to serve more than 62.8 lakh electors combined in the three states (Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura), including 31.47 lakh female electors, 97,000 voters above the age of 80, and 31,700 PwD voters,”.
“Over 1.76 lakh first-time voters will also participate in the assembly elections in the three Northeast states (Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura),” Kumar said.
The term of legislative assemblies of three states – Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura are due to expire on March 12, March 15 and March 22, 2023 respectively.
“The commission visited three states (Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura) during January 11-15 and held detailed review meetings. Also met political parties and have responded to almost all state-specific issues raised by them and measures to be put in place as per contextual and felt requirements of each state,” the CEC said.
While Tripura has a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) is in power in Nagaland. The National People’s Party (NPP), the only political party from the northeast to have a national party recognition, runs the government in Meghalaya.
A total of 28,14,478 voters are eligible to exercise their adult franchise in the ensuing polls. Among them, 14 lakh 14 thousand 576 are male and 13 lakh 98 thousand 825 voters are female. The total number of voters belonging to the third gender category stood at 77.