Election campaign ends in Arunachal Pradesh

Election campaign came to an end on Sunday afternoon in Arunachal Pradesh that goes to assembly election on October 13. Polling officials have already embarked on their journey to some remote poling stations since Saturday.

The administration have banked on Indian Air Force choppers in some parts of the frontier hill state to ferry polling teams to polling booths in remotest locations in absence of proper roads and also due to paucity of suitable vehicles.

Over 7.5 lakh voters including more than 3.7 lakh women will to elect their representatives from among 154 candidates in the fray. Polling will be held in over 2000 polling stations spread across 16 districts of the sparsely populated state.

Three Congress candidates have already been declared elected unopposed to the 60-member assembly from all the three legislative assembly constituencies -- Lumla, Tawang, Mukto -- Tawang district bordering China. One of them is Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu.

The Congress has 57 other candidates in the fray against 36 of the Nationalist Congress Party, 26 of Trinamool Congress and 18 from the Bharatiya Janata Party. The rest of the candidates are Independents and from other political parties.

There are nine women candidates in the fray including two from the Congress, four from TC, two from the NCP and one Independent. There are over 62 'crorepatis' among those 154 left in the fray. The electioneering in the hill state was marked by trading charges between the BJP and Congress and sporadic clashes between Congress and NCP workers in different parts of the state.

The BJP has accused the Congress candidates of using money power in sharp violation of poll code of conduct to lure voters. The Congress has dismissed the charge as misinformation campaign of the 'frustrated' BJP.

Counting will be held in the state on October 22 while the entire election process has to be completed by October 25.