GUWAHATI, Oct 20 - The stage is set for bypolls to four Legislative Assembly constituencies of the State � Ratabari, Jania, Rangapara and Sonari � tomorrow. All arrangements have been put in place for smooth conduct of the polls, said Election Commission officials.
Polling will start at 7 am and continue till 5 pm.
No major cases of violation of model code of conduct have been reported so far in the four constituencies. Polling personnel have reached their respective locations of duty, officials said.
Security arrangements have been made at all the polling stations.
Counting of votes will be taken up on October 24.
Altogether, 20 candidates are in fray in the four constituencies � nine in Jania, five in Rangapara, four in Ratabari and two in Sonari.
There are a total of 830 polling stations in the constituencies going to the polls tomorrow, including 202 each in Ratabari and Sonari, 229 in Jania and 197 in Rangapara.
The total number of electors in the four constituencies are 6,78,898. Of the total, 3,51,094 are male electors, 3,27,803 are female and one elector is from the �third gender�.
There are a total of 1,64,830 electors in Ratabari, 1,88,214 in Jania, 1,55,267 in Rangapara and 1,70,587 in Sonari.
These seats fell vacant after the legislators representing them got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent parliamentary polls and resigned from the Assembly. Kripanath Mallah (Ratabari), Pallab Lochan Das (Rangapara) and Topon Kumar Gogoi (Sonari) � all three from the BJP, and Abdul Khaleque of the Congress (Jania) vacated their Assembly seats after getting elected to the Lok Sabha.
While the BJP and Congress have fielded candidates in all the four seats, the AIUDF is contesting only from the Jania constituency.
Ratabari, Rangapara and Sonari are expected to witness a direct fight between the BJP and Congress. In Jania, a triangular contest is expected among the BJP, Congress and the AIUDF.
The candidates in fray from Ratabari are Keshab Prasad Rajak (Congress), Bijoy Malakar (BJP), Birendra Rabidas (Socialist Unity Centre of India - Communist) and Parikshit Roy (Independent).
From Jania, Chand Mahmud (National People�s Party), Shamsul Hoque (Congress), Towfiqur Rahman (BJP), Rafiqul Islam (AIUDF), Rustom Ali (CPI-M), Faruk Khan (Aam Aadmi Party), Rafikul Islam (Democratic Party of India), Abdul Jalil Talukdar (Independent) and Subhash Sutradhar (Independent) are in fray.
The candidates from Rangapara seat are Kartik Kurmi (Congress), Royal Soreng (CPI-M), Rajen Borthakur (BJP), Arup Kumar Chowdhury (Bharatiya Gana Parishad) and Sanjit Rajbanshi (SUCI-C).
Nabanita Handique (BJP) and Sushil Kumar Suri (Congress) are the only candidates in fray from Sonari.
