AIZWAL: The voting for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly started at 7 am amid tight security on Wednesday. The polling will stop at 4 pm and as many as 209 candidates in the fray.

The fight is mainly between the Congress and the Mizo National Front though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also looking for to make its presence felt. The Congress is striving for a third successive term in opposition to a stiff challenge from the Mizo National Front (MNF) headed by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga.

Both Congress and MNF are contesting on all 40 constituencies this time. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting in 39 seats.

Of the 209 candidates in the fight in this election, 15 are women. In 2013, only six women had contested and none were thriving.

Approximately 7,075 electoral officials have been engaged to carry out the elections. The Election Commission has set up 15 special polling stations at Kanhmun, a village along the Mizoram-Tripura border, to make possible voting by Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in Tripura for the past 21 years. Of the over 35,000 tribal immigrants, 11,232 are entitled to cast their votes in the Assembly elections.