Voting underway in Mizoram amid tight security
Aizawl, Nov 28 : Polling began Wednesday morning for the 40-member state Assembly amid tight security in Mizoram, where Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla is seeking a third consecutive term and the BJP looking to uproot the Congress in its last bastion in the Northeast.
The voting process started at 7am and will continue till 4 pm, election office sources said.
A total of 7,70,395 electorates, which includes 3,94,897 female voters, would seal the fates of 209 candidates - 15 of them women, the sources said.
Long queues of enthusiastic voters were seen outside many polling stations early in the day. Former chief minister and opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) chief Zoramthanga was among the first ones to exercise franchise at 7am.
Zoramthanga cast his vote at Ramhlun polling booth in Aizawl North-II constituency.
Meanwhile, Bru voters from six relief camps in North Tripura district arrived at Kanhmun village, along Mizoram-Tripura border, where 15 temporary polling stations were erected around 6am.
The voters had to walk around 500 metres from the interstate border to reach the polling stations, where members of local civil societies welcomed them with pork curry.
Altogether, 47 of 1,179 polling booths have been classified as 'critical' and as many as 'vulnerable' by the Election Commission.
The election office sources said 40 companies of central armed police force in addition to the state police force have been deployed to ensure free and fair polls.
Each constituency has one polling booth exclusively for women voters, manned by women polling and security personnel. These booths have been named after a flower called 'Dingdi'.
While the ruling Congress and the main opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) are contesting all 40 seats, the BJP has fielded candidates in 39 constituencies.
Zoram People's Movement (ZPM), a conglomerate of two political parties - the Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) and Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) - and five other groups, are in the fray for 35 seats.
'Zoramthar', an unregistered political party, has fielded candidates in 13 constituencies, while the National People's Party and the Nationalist Congress Party are contesting eight seats and five seats respectively. Six independents are also in the fray.
Borders with neighbouring countries Myanmar and Bangladesh and states Tripura, Assam and Manipur have been sealed since Sunday in view of the polls.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
