Guwahati/Agartala, Mar 16 (IANS): Elections to the 25 Lok Sabha seats across eight northeastern states will be held in the first three phases of the seven-phase 2024 parliamentary elections, with 15 seats, including one partly, going to the polls in the first phase, seven (one partly) in the second phase, and four in the third, it was announced on Saturday.
Announcing the poll schedule for the Lok Sabha elections at a press conference in New Delhi, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that of the two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur, polling will be held in Outer Manipur (reserved for the tribals) in two phases – April 19 and April 26.
According to the schedule, in the first phase on April 19, elections will be held in 5 seats in Assam, all two in Arunachal Pradesh, in Manipur (including partly in Outer Manipur), and Meghalaya, one in Tripura, and the sole seats in Nagaland, Mizoram, and Sikkim while in the second phase on April 26, voting will be held in another five seats in Assam, the other seat in Tripura, and Manipur (remaining part of Outer Manipur).
In the third phase on May 7, polling will be held in the remaining four seats in Assam.
In the 2019 polls, the elections were also held in the eight northeastern states in three phases.
Of the region's 25 Lok Sabha seats, seven are reserved for the tribals, and one for scheduled castes.
Election officials in different northeastern states said that they are ready to conduct the parliamentary polls as per the schedule announced by the Election Commission.
A large contingent of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) reached different northeastern states last month and they, along with the state security forces, are now regularly patrolling the sensitive, vulnerable, mixed-population, and border areas as part of their "confidence-building measures".
A senior election official told IANS that special security measures are being taken along the 1,643 km long border with Myanmar, the 1,880 km long border with Bangladesh, the over 1,300 km border with China, the 516 km border with Bhutan, and the 98 km border with Nepal to foil any cross-border illegal activities, infiltration, and misadventure during the run-up to the elections.