Guwahati, 30 April (HS): Voting for the first phase of the two-phase panchayat elections in Assam will be held on May 2. With this, the election campaign for the first phase ended on Wednesday. The State Election Commission had issued its notification on April 2.

Voting will be held in 14 districts in the first phase, including Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Shivsagar, Majuli, Jorhat, Golaghat, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Vishwanath, Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi. The second phase of voting will be held in the remaining 13 districts on May 7. The results will be declared on May 11.

In this panchayat election, about 1.8 crore voters will exercise their franchise, including about 90.7 lakh men, 89.6 lakh women and 408 third genders. Voting will be held from 7 am to 4.30 pm.

This election is being considered as a semi-final before the assembly elections proposed in 2026. A total of 21,920 Gram Panchayat members, 2,192 Anchal Panchayat members and 397 Zilla Parishad members will be elected in the Panchayat elections.

The Gram Panchayat member election is being held without political party symbols, while Anchal Panchayat and Zilla Parishad members are contesting on party symbols. 10,883 seats are reserved under women’s reservation. At the same time, 9,270 seats are general.

So far, 37 candidates of the BJP alliance have been elected unopposed in the Zilla Parishads—35 of BJP and 2 of Assam Gana Parishad (AGP). In the Anchal Panchayat, 259 BJP and 29 AGP candidates have won uncontested. Congress has so far got nine seats and AIUDF has got one seat, while independents have captured 13 seats.

While the ruling party is engaged in the election campaign unitedly, the opposition seems scattered. After the victory in the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress demonstrated in Jorhat, but later suffered a bad defeat. This time too, the lack of opposition unity is clearly visible, due to which the BJP alliance seems to be getting a political edge.

Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma is leading the BJP alliance, while Bhupen Bora has taken over the command of the Congress. Akhil Gogoi from Raijar Dal and Lurinjyoti Gogoi from Assam Jatiya Parishad are in the fray.

Political analysts believe that the results of the Panchayat elections can decide the direction of the upcoming assembly elections. The BJP alliance has so far won more than 300 Anchal Panchayat and more than 30 Zilla Parishad seats.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Sriprakash