After the withdrawal of candidature by a Congress candidate, the Nagaland Assembly election will witness a total of 183 candidates in the fray for 60 seats. This was informed by Chief Electoral Officer, V Shashank Shekhar on Saturday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Nagaland opened its account in the state ahead of the polls as the party candidate Kazheto Kinimi won from the Akuluto seat uncontested after the Congress candidate withdrew his candidature.
"Kazheto Kinimi's opponent from Akuluto Assembly Constituency, and INC candidate Khekashe Sumi withdrew his candidature on the last day of nomination withdrawal, February 10," Shekhar informed in a press briefing.
"The total nominated candidates during this process was 225, where 25 were rejected and during the time for withdrawal which was given, 16 candidates withdrew their nominations after scrutiny. Four women candidates from Dimapur AC, Tening AC, 8th Western Angami AC and Atoizu Assembly Constituency will also partake in the State Assembly election," the poll officer said.
He also stated that efforts have been made by the enforcement agencies, from the Centre as well as state to control any inducement for smooth conduct of elections.
"For the first time, the Election Commission of India has deputed three Special Observers for covering the election process in three states, the Special General Observer, Special Expenditure Observer and Special Police Observer have been deputed," he said.
The candidates vying for the state polls include 20 from BJP, CPI (1), INC (23), NCP (12), NPP (12), NDPP (40), NPF (22), RPP (1), JD (U) (7), LJP (Ram Vilas) (15), RPI (Athawale) (9), RJD (3), and Independents (19).
The number of electors in the state stands at 13,17,632, out of which 6,61,489 are male electors, and 6,56,143 are female.
The total number of Polling Stations is 2,351, with Merapani Polling Station No. 71 under 40 Bhandari AC recording the lowest number of electors (37), and Usutomi Polling Station No. 12 under 32 Atoizu AC recording the highest number of electors (1,348).
The Assembly Constituency with the lowest number of electors is 27 Mokokchung Town AC with 8,302 electors, and the Assembly Constituency with the highest number of electors is 4 Ghaspani-I AC with 74,395 electors. The Assembly Constituencies with the highest number of contesting candidates (6 candidates each) are - 6 Tening AC, 39 Sanis AC, and 45 Tehok AC.
The Assembly Election in Nagaland is slated to be held on February 27. The results will be declared on March 2.
(with inputs from ANI)
