Miscreants torched three schools at Krishnai in lower Assam’s Goalpara district late on Sunday night ahead of the first phase of elections to the Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council (RHAC) scheduled for November 13.
Elections to the RHAC is being held for the first time since its formation in 1995 amidst opposition by non-Rabha groups, which have been demanding the exclusion of non-Rabha-dominated villages from the RHAC. The second and third phases of the polls to the tribal council are scheduled for November 16 and 25. Altogether, 176 candidates are in the fray for 36 seats. Of these, 20 are in Goalpara and the rest are in southern part of Kamrup district.
Security measures have been beefed up in the wake of several Garo organisations calling for a boycott of the polling and the Ajanajati Chatra Santha, a student body of non-tribal students in RHAC areas, having called an RHAC bandh on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, polling teams left, under heavy security, for their respective polling centres of the seven seats in Goalpara and six seats in Kamrup, where polling will take place in the first phase on November 13.
