Wednesday, February 15 2006 13:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Shillong: Over 5.26 lakh voters in three districts of Meghalaya's Garo hills region will exercise their franchise in the Tura Lok Sabha bypoll which begins at 7 am tomorrow (Feb 16 2006).

Four candidates, including NCP leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma and former Meghalaya deputy chief minister Mukul Sangma, a Congress nominee, are in the fray. The two others are Independents.

The Tura seat fell vacant after Purno Sangma, who had held it for the eighth time in a row, quit the post in protest against police firing on students, over the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) revamping issue, in Garo hills in September 2004 that left nine dead and injured over 100.

Returning officer of the constituency and West Garo Hills district magistrate P Sampath Kumar said 18 additional companies of paramilitary forces comprising CRPF and BSF would be deployed during the poll for which 146 booths, including 29 'hyper sensitive' ones, had been earmarked as 'sensitive'.

Except for minor scuffles, campaigning for the bypoll has been largely peaceful.