Guwahati, December 5: Polling for local body elections in Assam began at 7 AM on Wednesday amid tight security and will end at 3 PM. The first phase of the panchayat elections on Wednesday will be held in 16 administrative districts. The second phase of rural polls will be held on December 9 and the counting of votes to be held on December 12. The first phase of the elections will decide the fate of over 43,515 contestants for 15,899 various posts.

The local body polls in the state will see a contest between the coalition partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) along with other parties.

The districts in which polling is being held today include Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Tinsukia, Dibrugrah, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat, Majuli, Golaghat, Nagaon, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Morigaon, Kamrup Metro and Kamrup, which together comprise 27 election districts. Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Polls 2018: Voting Takes of Place for Seventh Phase Amid Tight Security.

According to a report by PTI, Among the contestants, 796 are in the fray for 251 Zila Parishad (district panchayat) member seats, 3,799 for 1,304 anchalik panchayats (intermediate panchayat) member seats, 4,155 for 1,304 gaon panchayat (village panchayat) president posts and 34,765 for 13,040 gaon panchayat member seats.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 05, 2018 08:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).