Maligaon: Voting for 89 seats across 13 states is scheduled in the second phase on April 26 (Friday). Assam being one of them, voting began in Karimganj, Silchar, Mangaldoi, Nawgong, Kaliabor seats of Assam on April 26, Friday. However, netizens have sprung into heated discussions questioning the timing of the decision of the North East Frontier Railways to cancel and reschedule several trains routed to and from Assam just a day ahead of the Phase 2 of polling. In fact netizens pointed out that several train routes that were cancelled included trains to and from Silchar, Karimganj - the seats that are among the five seats that were to go to polls on Friday.
On April 25, Thursday, North East Frontier Railways released an official statement announcing the rescheduling and cancellations of several trains due to a train derailment incident between Jatinga Lampur and New Harangajao stations in the Lumding division. Taking to X, former Twitter, @ROKIBUZZAMAN2 posted the statement and alleged that the trains were cancelled in a bid to prevent voters from reaching the polling booths on time. The post said, "A huge number of voters, mostly Muslims, were going to Karimganj to cast their vote. By evening, six trains are cancelled! At least 5-10k people, who are now stranded, can't vote because of train cancellation!"
Netizens have severely criticised the move claiming that the authorities should have made alternative arrangements to facilitate voters to exercise their right on such a big day. @tony_karyakarta said, "Why don’t @PMOIndia, @narendramodi_inji order an high level enquiry into this & orders @AshwiniVaishnav to visit the region?" @tweetbyAnas said, "Political parties should arrange bus transportation for voters. In democracy, anyone who interested to cast their vote shouldn't be left behind."
However some netizens have also counter argued questioning why so many of them have to travel long distance to vote and have further questioned if each one among the crowd that's seen in the video has a valid voter id. @drnmark said, "Why so many have to travel to vote? Am I missing something?"
@YodaOfYourGen said, "Shouldn't they transfer the voter id to the location they are staying?"
@Nomad_Pixie said, "Infiltrators shouldn’t be allowed to vote".
As per the NF Railway statement, here's an official list of trains cancelled and rescheduled
Trains that have been cancelled
05628 Agartala-Guwahati Special slated for April 25, 2024.
15615 Guwahati-Silchar Express scheduled for April 26, 2024.
05627 Guwahati-Agartala Special set for April 26, 2024.
13175 Sealdah-Agartala Kanchanjungha Express scheduled for April 27, 2024.
12519 LTT-Agartala Express planned for April 28, 2024.
14620 Firozpur-Agartala Express due on April 29, 2024.
Short Terminations
12503 Humsafar Express of April 23, 2024, terminated at Lumding.
15611 Rangiya-Silchar Express of April 25, 2024, terminated at Lumding.
15616 Silchar-Guwahati Express of April 25, 2024, terminated at Ditokcherra.
15618 Dullabcherra-Guwahati Express of April 25, 2024, terminated at Badarpur.
14619 Agartala-Firozpur Express of April 25, 2024, terminated at Badarpur.
13174 Agartala-Sealdah Kanchanjungha Express of April 25, 2024, terminated at Hilara.
12520 Agartala-LTT Express of April 25, 2024, terminated at Damchara.
Resceduled
12508 Silchar-Trivandrum Express of April 25, 2024, rescheduled to depart at 06:00 hrs on April 26, 2024.
07029 Agartala – Secunderabad Special of April 26, 2024, rescheduled to commence at 15:00 hrs.
15616 Silchar-Guwahati Express of April 26, 2024, rescheduled to start at 10:00 hrs.
