The counting of votes cast in the assembly elections in three northeastern states of Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland began on Saturday, 3 March.

The counting began at 8 am and results are expected by the afternoon.

Tripura went to the polls on February 18 while elections in Meghalaya and Nagaland were held on February 27. Polling was held for 59 of 60 assembly seats in each of the three states. While two candidates died in Meghalaya and Tripura, former chief minister Neiphiu Rio of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) was elected unopposed in Nagaland.

Two exit polls have suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will overthrow the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led government in Tripura that has been ruling uninterrupted since 1993.

Despite large-scale snags in EVMs and VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) over 92 per cent (excluding 50,770 postal ballots) of Tripura’s 2,536,589 voters cast their votes in peaceful election.

A total of 292 candidates, including 23 women and many independents, are in the fray in the state.

The ruling CPI-M has fielded 56 candidates, leaving one seat each to its Left Front partners — the Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The BJP is contesting in 50 seats and left nine seats for its ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).

The Congress fielded candidates for all 59 constituencies but one of its candidates withdrew his nomination and joined the BJP. The Trinamool Congress has fielded 24 candidates.

In Meghalaya, which saw around 84 per cent voting, the contest involves the ruling Congress, BJP, National People’s Party (NPP) and the newly floated People’s Democratic Front.

The CVoter exit poll has predicted the ruling Congress suffering some setback with its tally coming down to 13-19 from 29 while the BJP is set to win 4-8 seats and around 16.5 per cent of vote share. It said the local National People’s Party (NPP) may get 17-23 seats.

In Nagaland, the BJP is contesting the polls in alliance with the newly-floated Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) and the two are contesting 20 and 40 seats respectively.

The CVoter survey has predicted a victory for the BJP-NDPP with the combine likely to get 25-31 seats with 38.4 per cent vote share.

It predicted that the ruling Naga People’s Front (NPF) will bag 19-25 seats with a vote share of 27.1 per cent. NPF had won 38 seats and 47.65 vote share in 2013 elections.

The voting in the state was held in 59 of the total 60 constituencies as three-time Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP) has been declared elected unopposed from Northern Angami-II constituency.

(With inputs from agencies.)