The bypolls for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland and an Assembly seat in Meghalaya saw a high turnout of voters on Monday. At least 75% of 11,97,436 voters in Nagaland and 90.42% of 24,181 voters in Meghalaya’s Ampati seat cast their votes.
Voting in Nagaland was peaceful barring a mob attack on the 13-Kubza polling station in Mokokchung district.
“Seven persons were arrested after a large mob overpowered the polling personnel and vandalised the polling booth. Re-polling will be needed there,” the State’s chief electoral officer Abhijit Sinha said.
“The final polling figure will be known tomorrow [Tuesday] morning after reports from remote areas come in. As of now, we recorded 75% polling,” he added.
The Nagaland LS seat fell vacant in February after Neiphiu Rio resigned to contest the Assembly election as a candidate of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), which formed an alliance with the BJP. He is now the Chief Minister.
The contest for the Nagaland LS seat is between NDPP candidate Tokheho Yepthomi and C. Apok Jamir of the Naga People’s Front, a former BJP ally now backed by long-time rival Congress.
The bypoll for Ampati was necessitated by former Chief Minister Mukul M Sangma, who had won from two seats, vacating it and retaining the Songsak seat.
His daughter Miani D Shira hopes to retain the seat for the Congress.
