Voting for Imphal Municipal Council begins

Imphal, May 31 (UNI) Voting started peacefully under a clear sky at 0800 hours for election of 27 wards of Imphal Municipal Council (IMC) this morning.

People came out in large numbers to cast their votes but as the day progressed rains played spoilsport. The voting will continue till 4 pm.

Officials said voting at 232 polling stations was going on a normal pace.

A Large number of policemen have been deployed at the polling stations to avoid any untoward incidents. Security has been beefed up at 27 sensitive polling stations.

Most other polling stations were manned by unarmed police personnel.

Mobile police team were patrolling in Imphal and neighbouring areas to avert any untoward incident.

Police said that some unknown armed persons fired several rounds of fire near the residences of the BJP and the Congress candidates last night.

The maximum number of firing took place near the residences of the BJP candidates at Thangmeiband assembly constituuency.

The BJP was threatened by Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), a militant outfit, not to put up any candidate in the elections as the party had failed to expel former Union Minister T H Chaoba from the party.

About 103 candidates are in the fray for the 27 wards of IMC, including ten seats reserved for women. Twenty wards are from Imphal West and seven from Imphal East.

The Congress party has put up 25 candidates, the NCP 16, CPI eight and other parties one or two candidates.

Election officials said about 1.7 lakh voters would exercise their franchise at 232 polling stations today. About 1160 officials are manning the election.

Counting of votes would begin on June 2.

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