By- Banibrata Datta (FTFMI)
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced polling schedules for the Assembly elections in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that polling will be held in Tripura on February 16 and in Nagaland and Meghalaya on February 27 and the counting of votes is scheduled for March 2. All the three states have 60-member Assemblies. Along with the announcement of the election schedule, the model code of conduct for political parties and candidates will also come into force from Wednesday. In Tripura, the last date for filing nominations has been kept on January 30. In Nagaland and Meghalaya, the last date for filing nominations is February 7. The CEC informed that women voters participation in these states have been more than men in the past polls. “Women participants have been more than men in the previous elections in all three statesait is a happy trend to report,” he said, adding that participation of women voters and their numbers on the electoral rolls are higher than men. While the Commission has enabled voters who are 17 to give advance applications before they turn 18, nearly 10,000 youths who are between 17-18 years of age have registered from the three states, the CEC said. According to the Election Commission, there are a total of 13,09,651 voters in Nagaland, 21,61,129 voters in Meghalaya and 28,13,478 voters in Tripura. A total of 3,328 polling stations will be set up in Tripura, 2,315 in Nagaland, and 3,482 polling stations in Meghalaya. Keeping in view the sensitivity of these states, strict security arrangements are also being made. The term of the Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura Assemblies ends on March 12, March 22 and March 15, respectively.
