81.71% voter turnout recorded in 4 Lok Sabha seats in Assam

Guwahati: An estimated 81.71 per cent of the 81.49 lakh eligible voters exercised their franchise in the elections held in four Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam on May 7, officials said on Wednesday.

The final polling percentage could be further revised as compilation of figures are yet to be completed, an official said.

Polling in all the three phases in Assam was peaceful with no repoll held in the first two phases and none announced so far for the third.

Dhubri recorded the highest polling percentage of 86.80 per cent, followed by Barpeta with 81.02 per cent, Kokrajhar with 80.44 per cent and Guwahati the lowest at 75.67 per cent.

There are 47 candidates in the fray in the final phase.

A total of 81,49,091 voters, including 41,00,544 men, 40,48,436 women and 111 of the third gender, were eligible to exercise their franchise in 9,516 polling stations.

The prominent candidates in the fray are AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal, seeking a fourth successive term from Dhubri, and his rival and sitting Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain, eight-time Asom Gana Parishad MLA and former minister Phanibhushan Choudhury and sitting CPI(M) MLA Manoranjan Talukdar and Congress candidate Deep Bayan from Barpeta.

In Kokrajhar, former BTC Deputy leader Kampa Borgoyary of the Bodo Peoples' Front and his rivals United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) Joyanta Basumatary and Congress candidate Garjen Mushahry are in the fray.

In Guwahati, two women candidates Bijuli Kalita Medhi of BJP and Mira Borthakur Goswami are locked in a direct contest.

Dhubri has the highest electorate of 26,63,987, while Kokrajhar has the lowest of 14,94,404 voters in this phase.

In the first phase polls held on April 19, 78.25 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise to decide the fate of 35 candidates for the Kaziranga, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur constituencies.

In the second phase held on April 26, 81.17 per cent of the electorate cast their votes to decide the fate of 61 candidates for Karimganj, Silchar(SC), Diphu (ST), Nagaon and Darrang-Udalguri.

In the 2019 parliamentary polls, 81.55 per cent of the electorate had exercised their franchise in all the three-phased polls In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP held nine seats, Congress three, AIUDF and an independent one each from the state.