Aizawl/UNI: India’s tiny North Eastern state of Mizoram goes to the polls on Tuesday with an electorate of 8,56,868 spread across 1,276 polling stations eligible to choose a 40-member Assembly from a pool of 170 candidates.

State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Madhup Vyas said that the stage is set for voting amidst a thick security blanket and multiple tech-driven measures to ensure free, fair, and peaceful polls.

Voting will begin at 7 am and continue till 4 pm in India’s second least populated and fifth smallest state.

There are 29 vulnerable polling stations and one critical polling station, mainly along the international and international border areas across the state.

The CEO said there are 4,39,026 female voters and 4,975 service voters in the state. He said webcasting will be undertaken in 769 (60 percent) of the polling stations.

Besides 3,000 odd state police personnel, 450 sections of central armed police forces (CAPF) are being deployed to prevent any breach of peace. There are 21 general observers, 14 expenditure observers and 11 police observers to oversee the polling process.

Mizoram Election Department officials said that there are 19 villages in the state where water transport is required.

State Additional Chief Electoral Officer H. Lianzela said that such villages only accessible by boat are in southern Mizoram’s Lunglei to Lawngtlai districts and the Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border Mamit district.

There are also 22 polling stations where polling parties have to move by foot. The villages are located in Lunglei district (11), Mamit district (6), and Lawngtlai district (5).

Though the number of candidates is 170, four of them are contesting from two assembly seats each.

The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) and the Congress are contesting all the assembly seats while the BJP is in fray in 23 seats and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominees are fighting in four seats. There are 27 independent aspirants.