- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, May 26, 2022 : Altogether, 1,88,854 electorates will exercise their democratic rights in the upcoming by-elections in four assembly constituencies of Tripura slated to be held on June 23 next while women electorates outnumbered men in these constituencies.
Speaking to media persons at Civil Secretariat here in Agartala city on Thursday afternoon, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Kiran Gitte said “In these four assembly constituencies, a total of 1,88,854 voters will exercise their franchise in the coming by-election and among them, 95,283 are female voters and 93,567 are male voters. The electorate aging above 80 years is 3072 and 666 are service voters. There are 221 polling stations located at 139 places.”
“Among these four assembly constituencies, the highest number of electors are in 6-Agartala which is 51,639, while in 8-Town Bardowali the numbers of electoral are 46,583, in 46-Surma 47,289 voters and in 57-Jubarajnagar the numbers of voters are 43,373.”
“The by-election is scheduled for 6-Agartala and 8-Town Bardowali assembly constituencies under West Tripura district where the MLAs tendered their resignation in February 07 last. The MLA of 46-Surma assembly constituency has been disqualified and lying vacant since January 05 last. And the MLA of 57-Jubarajnagar assembly constituency passed away on February 01 last and has been vacant since then”, he added.
Citing the availability of Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers for these four assembly constituencies, CEO Gitte said “In 6-Agartala, AMC Commissioner is the RO while AROs are Deputy Transport Commissioner and Deputy Director of the UD department. In 8-Town Bardowali, Sadar SDM is the RO while AROs are Deputy Collector No-1 Sadar SDM office and Assistant Municipal Commissioner of AMC central zone. In 46-Surma, SDM of Kamalpur is the RO while BDO of Salema RD Block and Deputy Collector No-II of Kamalpur SDM office are the AROs. In 57-Jubarajnagar, Dharmanagar SDM is the RO while BDO of Jubarajnagar RD Block and Treasury Officer of North Tripura are the AROs.”
“The gazette notification for conducting the by-election will be issued on May 30 next. The last date of filing nomination papers is June 6 next, scrutiny is on June 7 and withdrawal of candidatures is on June 9 next. The date of polling is on June 23 and counting on June 26 next while the entire election process will be completed on June 28 next”, the CEO told reporters.
He said “Adequate numbers of Central Armed Paramilitary Force (CAPF) jawans will be deployed along with 50% webcasting will be done to conduct the ‘free and fair’ bye-election in Tripura’s four assembly constituencies. The past records of these four assembly constituencies polling station wise were checked to find out whether any kind of violence was recorded or not. Thereafter, the polling stations will be categorized as normal, critical and vulnerable.”
“The District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police in three districts are working on this process and we will send our requirement to the ECI based on their assessment and the Ministry of Home Affairs will take the final call”, he added.
It is worthy to mention here that the four assembly constituencies fell vacant are- Sudip Roy Barman resigned from 6-Agartala and Asish Kumar Saha from 8-Town Bardowali left BJP and joined Congress, Asis Das of 46-Surma joined TMC and Ramendra Chandra Debnath of 57-Jubarajnagar passed away.
