The Hindu : Mahanta arrives late, misses vote

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002

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Other States - Assam

Mahanta arrives late, misses vote

GUWAHATI JULY 15. Former Assam Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, today could not vote in the 12th presidential election as he arrived 30 seconds late to cast his ballot.

Mr Mahanta, who came from Delhi, had several problems with his flight which ultimately landed in the evening and by the time he reached the state assembly premises, it was 30 seconds late.

``The Sahara flight from Delhi had started but returned back due to technical snag. Ultimately a flight from Mumbai was boarded which landed here late via Dibrugarh'', Mahanta later told PTI here.

At 1700 hours the polling came to an end and by the time Mahanta reached it was too late, the officials told him.

Assam Chief Minister,Tarun Gogoi,was among the 100 MLAs in the state to cast ballots till this noon for the country's 12th Presidential election amid heavy security arrangements.

Mr Gogoi was one of the first to cast vote as majority of the members turned up before noon to exercise their franchise.

Although the Assembly has 126 members in the House, one seat has fallen vacant owing to the death of Congress MLA Jiba Kanta Gogoi.

Polling for the country's top post began at the Assam Assembly complex here this morning. Since none of the 125 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly was from the Left, it was expected that all the votes would be cast in favour of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

Assembly Secretary Mahendra Sarma would carry the ballot boxes tomorrow to deposit them at the Parliament Secretariat. - UNI

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Mahanta arrives late, misses vote