Imphal : The voting for the second and final phase of Manipur poll covering 22 assembly constituencies began on Saturday at 7 am. People started coming out early morning to exercise their franchise.
The fate of ninety two candidates including two women would be decided in the elections held in six Election districts of Senapati, Jiribam, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Tamenglong, Chandel. A total of 8,38,730 electors including 4,10,020 males, 4,28,679 females and 31 transgender were eligible to exercise their franchise . Thoubal Assembly constituency with 223 was completely manned by women polling officials. About 4988 polling officials will man the entire 1247 polling stations. Only EVM will be used in all the polling stations.
The second and last phase polls had elected 12 Congress, four Naga People’s Front (NPF), three BJP , two NPP and one independent in the last elections. This time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be contesting in 22 seats, Indian National Congress (INC) in 18, National People’s Party (NPP) in 11, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in 10, Republican Party of India-Athawale (RPI-A) in 3, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena in 2 and one candidate each from CPI and Rashtriya Janhit Sangharsh Party (RJSP) and 12 Independent .
Arrangement for webcasting/videography were made in all polling stations. Movement of EVMs were tracked with the help of e-Traccar App which were embedded in the mobile phones of polling personnel and Sector Officers. Meanwhile as directed by the High Court of Manipur, dates of birth of all young voters in 33-Heirok Assembly Constituency who appear to be in the vicinity of the age of majority, that is 18 years would be verified by using two documents to verify their identity. In the second phase the fates of former Congress Chief Minister O Ibobi at Thoubal, former Education Minister of BJP, Th Radheshyam at Heirok, former Congress President Gaikhangam at Nungba will be decided. The Election Commission of India has ordered repoll in 12 polling stations on March 5 the day of second day phase poll .
Rajesh Agrawal, Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur said the ECI has declared that the poll taken on February, 28 at 12 polling stations to be void. The hours of poll will be from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Polling for 38 Assembly constituencies were held on Feb 28. Repoll was also going on in 12 Polling Stations going in 1/20-Sarouthel (1-Khundrakpam AC), Imphal East; 51/46- New Keithelmanbi (51-Saitu(ST) AC), Kangpokpi; from Churachandpur District – 56/5-Songsang, 56/10-Maite and 56/19-Tinsuong (56-Thanlon (ST) AC); 57/20- Majuron Kuki, 57/31-N.Chingphei, 57/34- Khoirentak, 57/39- Molsang and 57/49- Leinom (57-Henglep (ST) AC); 60/36- Teikot and 60/43- Maukot (60-Singhat (ST) AC).