- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, November 25, 2021 : A total percentage of 81.5 percent of voters exercised their democratic rights in 222 seats of 14 urban local bodies election across Tripura on Thursday.
Few stray incidents were reported in various parts of Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) and other urban local bodies across the state.
It is also reported that few incidents of rigging and threatening candidates and workers were alleged by the opposition political parties- CPIM-led Left Front and Trinamool Congress.
The state election commission (SEC) in its website till 9 PM on Thursday claimed that 81.5 percent of electors had exercised their franchise in 222 seats.
Tripura Police in a press communiqué undersigned by the Assistant Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Subrata Chakraborty said that the election for 14 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the state has been conducted. Barring 5/6 polling booths in Agartala, Khowai and Dharmanagar till 6 PM, voting in all the booths has been completed and polled EVMs have started returning into strong rooms.
It is worthy to mention here that the election was scheduled to take place in 20 ULBs, but the BJP sweep victory in 112 seats of six bodies as the opposition failed to field their candidates in seven ULBs.
The election took place in 222 seats with 785 candidates in the fray from BJP, TMC, CPIM, Congress, and TIPRA Motha on Thursday.
Tripura Trinamool Congress convenor Subal Bhowmik alleged that the voters were threatened in semi-urban areas of Agartala city and other parts of the state.
The ruling BJP karyakartas threatened their candidates and common voters to stay at home and not to visit the polling stations for exercising their democratic rights, he claimed.
Tripura CPIM raised serious allegations of an unprecedented amount of lawlessness and fear psychosis among the common voters.
Tripura Left Front demanded fresh election and re-polling in 117 seats out of 222 where polls were held today and these are- Agartala Municipal Corporation, Dharmanagar Municipal Council, Khowai Municipal Council, Belonia Municipal Council and Melghar Municipal Council. The left parties organization also sought re-polling in Ward No. 4, 8, and 10 of Panisagar Nagar Panchayat, Ward No. 2 and 5 of Sabroom Nagar Panchayat, and Ward No. 5 of Sonamura Nagar Panchayat.
Royal scion of Tripura and TIPRA Motha chairman Pradyot Kishore Debbarman told reporters “My party candidates in Agartala city faced threats from other political party workers on the day of vote”.
Tripura Pradesh BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee claimed the voting process was peaceful barring a few stray incidents staged by the goons backed by the CPIM and Trinamool Congress in the state. However, voters refrained from the conspiracy hatched by the opposition and went to polling stations for exercising democratic rights, he added.
Reacting to the allegations of TMC and CPIM, Nabendu said “These two political parties are having ‘shadow-alliance’. After 2018 assembly election in Tripura, CPIM has become endangered and accordingly, TMC was invited from West Bengal. The conspiracy of these two opposition parties had firmly tackled by the BJP karyakartas and people of the state”.
