Monday, April 3 2006 09:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Guwahati: Polling began in Assam this morning (Apr 03, 2006) for the first phase of elections in 65 of the 126 assembly constituencies with an electorate of over 92 lakh scheduled to cast their votes.

Today's poll will decide the fate of several heavyweights including Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi (Titabor), Speaker Prithvi Majhi (Lahowal), state Congress President Bhubaneswar Kalita (Rangiya), former Union Minister Bijoya Chakraborty (Dispur) and several sitting MLAs.

A total electorate of 92,07,504 - 47,51,287 male and 44,56,217 women will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 515 candidates - 475 male and 40 women.

BJP has put up the highest number of 65 candidates, followed by 64 from Congress, 54 from AGP, 25 from NCP and eight each from CPI and CPI (M).

Security measures are tight with 300 additional companies of central forces deployed near polling booths.

The total number of polling stations in the first phase is 9,723 with 1,797 polling booths identified as very sensitive and 3,227 as sensitive.