Aizawl:
Voting in the only Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram which is witnessing a three-cornered contest began at 7 am today along with the by-poll to Hrangturzo Assembly seat.
The triangular contest is among the ruling Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), which is an alliance of eight opposition parties.
UDF comprises the main Opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF) and BJP besides the Zoram Nationalist Party, the Mizoram People's Conference, the Maraland Democratic Front, the Hmar People's Conference, the Paite Tribal Council and the NCP.
The Congress has fielded its sitting MP CL Ruala, while the UDF has nominated Robert Romawia Royte. AAP has put up Michael Lalmanzuala as its candidate for the seat.
Mizoram Lok Sabha seat has 7,02,189 voters, of whom 3,55,954 are women.
There are 1,126 polling stations of which 385, mainly in the urban areas, would use the VVPAT system.
Security arrangements have been made for the conduct of free and fair polls with the deployment of additional eight companies of central paramilitary forces apart from six state armed battalions and unarmed policemen.
International borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and inter-state borders have been sealed, official sources said.
The polling was originally scheduled for April 9 but the Election Commission postponed it to April 11 after Mizoram-based civil society bodies called a 72-hour bandh in the state from April 7 in protest against its move to allow Bru refugees to vote in Tripura.
The organisations had demanded that the Election Commission should allow the refugees to cast their vote in Mizoram, which was turned down. The Bru voters, who are in camps in Tripura after being thrown out of Mizoram following ethnic violence with the Mizos in 1997, exercised their franchise through postal ballot from April 1 to April 3.
The triangular contest is among the ruling Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), which is an alliance of eight opposition parties.
UDF comprises the main Opposition party Mizo National Front (MNF) and BJP besides the Zoram Nationalist Party, the Mizoram People's Conference, the Maraland Democratic Front, the Hmar People's Conference, the Paite Tribal Council and the NCP.
The Congress has fielded its sitting MP CL Ruala, while the UDF has nominated Robert Romawia Royte. AAP has put up Michael Lalmanzuala as its candidate for the seat.
Mizoram Lok Sabha seat has 7,02,189 voters, of whom 3,55,954 are women.
There are 1,126 polling stations of which 385, mainly in the urban areas, would use the VVPAT system.
Security arrangements have been made for the conduct of free and fair polls with the deployment of additional eight companies of central paramilitary forces apart from six state armed battalions and unarmed policemen.
International borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh and inter-state borders have been sealed, official sources said.
The polling was originally scheduled for April 9 but the Election Commission postponed it to April 11 after Mizoram-based civil society bodies called a 72-hour bandh in the state from April 7 in protest against its move to allow Bru refugees to vote in Tripura.
The organisations had demanded that the Election Commission should allow the refugees to cast their vote in Mizoram, which was turned down. The Bru voters, who are in camps in Tripura after being thrown out of Mizoram following ethnic violence with the Mizos in 1997, exercised their franchise through postal ballot from April 1 to April 3.
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