Voting for five seats in Assam in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections began at 7 am on Friday, amid elaborate security arrangements, an official said.
Polling is scheduled to continue till 5 pm.
The constituencies where voting has started are all in upper Assam with three-Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Kaziranga – on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river and two -Sonitpur and Lakhimpur- on the north bank.
Over 86.47 lakh voters, comprising 43.64 lakh women who outnumber 42.82 lakh men and 123 third gender, are eligible to exercise their franchise in 10,001 polling booths, the official said.
They will decide the political fate of 35 candidates, including Union Minister and BJP nominee Sarbananda Sonowal, his rival Lurin Jyoti Gogoi of Assam Jatiya Parishad and Gaurav Gogoi of the Congress.
Sixty companies of security forces were deployed in the five constituencies to ensure free and fair elections.
The BJP is contesting in all five seats in the first phase of the polls, the Congress in four, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in two and the Trinamool Congress, the Assam Jatiya Parishad and CPI in one each.
Live monitoring and webcasting were arranged in all the 5,509 polling stations for observing poll proceedings, the official said.
A total of 40,004 polling personnel and presiding officers have been engaged, he added
