Moderate polling in BTC poll

Guwahati: Peaceful polling is going on in 40 constituencies of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in four Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) today.
Polling was brisk in the early hours but declined towards noon but was expected to pick up before closing of polls at 4 pm, a spokesman of the Assam State Election Commission said.
Polling was held amidst security arrangements in the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri districts following incidents of pre-poll violence in which one person was killed and six others injured in Kokrajhar on Monday last.
There was no report of any untoward incident reported from any of the four districts though there were initial glitches regarding functioning of EVMs and ballot papers in some areas but they were resolved immediately.
The Assam State Election Comission has by a notification today imposed restrictions on broadcasting of interviews of candidates by the electronic media/ TV channels during the polling day to avoid any scope of election campaign or election agenda being made by the candidates through such interviews.
Earlier, the Commission had imposed restrictions on pre-poll and exit poll analysis by print and electronic media.
An estimated 20,64,099 electorate was expected to exercise their franchise in 2,700 polling booths spread across the four districts to decide the fate of 316 candidates for the 40 seats.
There are 46 territorial councils constituencies in the BTC, but elections will be held for 40 seats with the Assam Governor nominating six members to the Council from the unrepresented communities.
The BTC came into existence in 2003 as part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Central government, the state government and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) with polling held for the Council for the first time in 2003 and the Bódoland People’s Front (BPF) won a majority and retained power for the second consecutive term in 2010.The date of counting has been fixed on April 11 and repolling, if any, will be held on April 10. (PTI)