The campaign full of allegations, counter-allegations and promises for the Assam Assembly elections ended at 5 pm on Tuesday evening. Voting will be held on April 9 to decide the electoral fate of a total of 722 candidates. Campaigning for Dharmanagar assembly by-election in Tripura also came to a halt on Tuesday.

The main candidates in the Assam elections include Chief Minister Himanta Vishwa Sharma, senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, Assembly Speaker Vishwajit Daimary, opposition leader Debabrata Saikia, senior ministers Ranoj Pegu, Chandramohan Patwari, Atul Bora, Keshav Mahanta, Ajanta Neog, Ashok Singhal, Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi and AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi.

BJP, Left Front and Congress have fielded separate candidates for the Dharmanagar by-election in Tripura to be held on April 9. The by-election is being conducted after the death of Assembly Speaker and BJP leader Vishwa Bandhu Sen in December last year.

Assembly election campaign stopped in Kerala and Puducherry also

Along with Assam, the campaign for Kerala and Puducherry assembly elections has also stopped. Voting will be held in these three states on April 9 and the results will be declared on May 4. There is a tough contest between Himanta and Gaurav in Assam, LDF, UDF and NDA in Kerala and NDA and UPA in Puducherry. The fate of 1879 candidates is at stake in these three places.

Preparations for Kerala Assembly elections complete, 883 candidates in the fray

Kerala Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ratan U Kelkar on Tuesday said all preparations have been completed for the assembly elections to be held on April 9, in which 883 candidates will try to garner the support of the state’s 2.71 crore voters.

Kelkar told a press conference here that 30,495 polling stations have been set up in the state. He said that these also include 24 auxiliary polling stations, which were required after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list.

According to Kelkar, new polling stations will be set up in Kasaragod, Kannur, Palakkad, Malappuram and Ernakulam districts of Kerala. He said that out of these polling stations, 352 will be operated by women and 37 will be operated by disabled persons. According to Kelkar, 140 distribution and collection centers have been set up and counting of ballot papers will be done in 140 ‘strong rooms’. He said, ‘As part of the management of the election process, we have deployed 1.46 lakh trained election officials. 76,000 police personnel and central forces personnel have been deployed to maintain law and order and ensure peaceful voting.

Mamata Banerjee’s government will be formed in Bengal – Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party (SP) national president and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday again claimed the victory of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said that despite all the efforts, dishonesty and conspiracies the BJP makes, the people of Bengal will defeat it. While talking to journalists here, Yadav also raised questions on the basis of proposed women’s reservation in Parliament. He said that when the population has increased since 2011, half the population would have increased further, so there should be talk of reservation on the current population.

Expressing apprehension about the Chief Election Commissioner, he said that Gyanesh will now be more dishonest and the Election Commission will be more dishonest in the elections of Uttar Pradesh. He targeted the commission, claiming that it had failed in its duty to ensure voter inclusion. He said, “It is the job of the Election Commission to connect voters, but it seems for the first time that the Commission’s focus is on removing voters.” He alleged that inflation and unemployment are increasing and the situation will worsen after the elections.