MLA Likha Soni confident as panchayat poll campaign ends in Arunachal

Dibrugarh: Campaigning for Arunachal Pradesh’s municipal and panchayat elections concluded at 4 pm on Saturday, setting the stage for polling on Monday, December 15.

The final day saw intense political activity, with Lekang Assembly Constituency’s NCP MLA, Likha Soni, leading a robust push for his party’s candidates.

Expressing optimism for the upcoming results, MLA Soni stated, "We have run a strong, focused campaign connecting directly with the people and addressing their local needs. I expect a good performance from our NCP candidates across the wards and constituencies."

Polling is scheduled to begin at 7 am on Monday and will conclude at 4 pm. A total of 63 candidates have already been elected uncontested across the state’s municipal and rural bodies.

The ruling BJP has secured significant gains even before voting begins, winning unopposed in 58 Zilla Parishad seats and seeing 5,037 of its candidates for Gram Panchayat member seats declared elected without contest.

The National People's Party (NPP) also won one Zilla Parishad seat uncontested, while four BJP candidates secured uncontested victories for the Itanagar Municipal Corporation (IMC).

Despite the early results, voters will head to the polls to decide the fate of 440 candidates contesting 186 Zilla Parishad seats, 39 candidates for 16 IMC wards, and 21 candidates for eight PMC wards.

A total of 831,648 voters are eligible to cast their ballots across 2,171 polling stations. While Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for the municipal polls, the panchayat elections will utilize ballot boxes.

The SEC noted that voting in the Dumba Singpho Gram Panchayat has been countermanded due to the death of a validly nominated candidate.

The counting of votes for all elections will take place on December 20.