Amid great political nuance polling for the first phase began at 7 am in Manipur. 38 constituencies out of 60 constituencies which include Imphal East, West, Bishnupur, the hill district Khangpokpi and Churachandpur. Human right activist Irom Sharmila casts her debut vote after a long gap of 20 years in her assembly constituency Khurai.
“This time I am voting for CPI, as we don’t have candidate in Khurai. I am positive about winning the election” says Sharmila.
Meanwhile, one of the conveyor and candidate of her party PRJA Eendro Leichombam along with few supporters were assaulted by some miscreants in is constituency Thangmeiband Sinam Leikei.
The incident happened when Erendro along with his supporters came to Thangmeiband in East Imphal, some local goons stopped their vehicle and his team and started vandalising party’s flag in the car, snatched party symbol whistle from Erendro’s neck and physically assaulted him.
Erendro was later taken to RIMS hospital for medical assistance.
A total of 19,02,562 voters will be casting their votes in the first phase out of which 9,28,573 are male and 9,73, 989 female voters. A total number of 45,642 are recorded as young voters who will be casting their votes for the first time.
280 forces of central paramilitary are deployed for maintaining peaceful polls in the state.
Meanwhile, the Election commission has ordered to register an FIR against certain newspapers and office staffs of BJP for violating moral code of conduct and publishing an advertisement.
Till 1 pm 69 percentage of voters turned up for polls in 1,643 polling stations.
