Nagaland has geared up to conduct a free and fair byelection to the Noksen assembly seat, scheduled on April 17.

State Chief Electoral Officer Abhijit Sinha on Friday held closed-door meetings with representatives of political parties, officials of Tuensang district where the constituency is located, and journalists.

Filing of nominations will commence on March 23 and the last date for submission of the documents is March 30, Sinha told reporters.

The constituency has 11,819 electors, of which 11,788 are general voters (6,163 males and 5,625 females) and 31 are service electors.

There are 23 polling stations in the constituency with Yangpi polling station having the highest number of voters at 953 and Yukumsang compound polling station having the lowest number of electors at 113, Sinha said.

A total of 138 polling personnel will be requisitioned and 69 others will be kept on reserve.

The byelection was necessitated by the death of Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Justice and Law, C M Chang on October 12 last year while undergoing treatment for COVID-19.

He is the only legislator in Nagaland to have succumbed to the infection so far. PTI