New Delhi: The counting of votes for Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election in Assam is currently underway. Notably, polling for 40 seats of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) took place in two phases on December 7 and 10. The election was scheduled on April 4, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, Governor Jagdish Mukhi assumed the charge of the council on the expiry of its five-year term on Apr 27.
As per the early trends, the ruling Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) led by Promod Bodo is witnessing a neck to neck fight. While UPPL is leading in 20 seats, BPF is ahead on 11. The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading on 3 seats at present, Congress and AIUDF in one each.
The election assumes significance as it is the first election in BTAD after the signing of the Bodo peace accord and the formation of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) earlier this year.
Over 78 percent voter turnout was recorded on Thursday in Bodo Territorial Council’s (BTC) second and final phase of polling, which witnessed police firing in the air to control a clash between BPF and UPPL supporters in Chirang district of Assam. Till the closing of polls at 4.30 pm, 78.80 per cent of 10,23,404 voters exercised their franchise, deciding the fate of 111 candidates for 19 constituencies spread across Kokrajhar and Chirang districts.
The much-awaited voting for the BTC began on December 7 with over 77.01 per cent voters exercising their franchise in the first phase of polling for 21 seats in Udalguri and Baksa districts, where 130 candidates have contested. Out of the total 3,164 polling booths in the four districts, the authorities marked 606 as very sensitive and 1,266 as sensitive, and arranged tight security measures in those.
A total of 23,87,422 voters in the two phases exercised their franchise to elect their representatives for the local council, formed in 2003 and elections being held since 2005.