Commuters faced a harrowing time on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s polls in Assam because of long waiting hours and exorbitant fares.

Commuters leaving for their native places to cast their votes faced unexpected problems as bus fares of most buses originating from Guwahati to neighbouring areas were hiked from Rs 50 to Rs 100, more than double in most cases.

A senior official of the transport department said more than 650 buses from Guwahati are away on election duty in Barpeta, Goalpara and Kokrajhar in lower Assam for the third and final phase of elections in the state on Tuesday.

Four constituencies — Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, and Gauhati — will go to polls on Tuesday.

Bimal Pathak, a resident of Nalbari, who was left stranded in Jalukbari, said, “Most of the buses and travellers charged double of what they do on other days. They charged Rs 100 to go to Nalbari from Jalukbari here but the actual fare is only Rs 50. Buses are overcrowded so the travellers have hiked the price before election day.”

Commuters also had to wait for long periods of time to board buses.

Mridu Paban Kalita, a resident of Tezpur, who had plans to visit Guwahati on Monday, said, “The travellers are charging Rs 400 whereas it costs only Rs 180 to travel from Tezpur to Guwahati. The fare is so high that I had to change my decision to go to Guwahati. Very few buses are plying and they were overcrowded.”

Commuters here in the city too had a tough time on Monday.

Chintu Moni Saikia of Bhetapara Chariali said, “Very few city buses are plying so I had to wait for more than 30 minutes to get one. For the past three days, I have been inconvenienced because of inadequate city buses. I had to struggle for space even to stand on the buses. The number of Ola and Uber cabs is also limited. Autorickshaws are charging four times the fare here.”

“Most of the cab drivers have gone home to cast their votes,” a source in Uber told The Telegraph.

Altogether 17 candidates are in the fray for Gauhati, the biggest among the 14 constituencies in the state in terms of population.

A total of 2.17 lakh people will cast their votes in 2,592 polling stations.

There is expected to be a keen contest between the BJP’s Queen Oja, the Congress’s Bobbeeta Sharma and Independent Upamanyu Hazarika.