Tripura polls: Over 70% turnout till 3 p.m. amid several incidents of violence

Agartala: Over 70 per cent voters cast their votes till 3 p.m. on Thursday in the Tripura Assembly polls amid heavy security, election officials said.

Several incidents of attacks on political workers and intimidation and obstruction of voters were reported.

At least 60 opposition party workers were injured when the ruling party workers attacked them in South, Gomati, Sepahijala and West Tripura districts. The main opposition CPI-M alleged that the BJP workers have evicted their candidates’ polling agents in more than 25 polling stations in four districts.

Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao said that wherever the authority got any information of any trouble, the security forces immediately rushed to the areas and resolved the problems.

A senior police official said that a police constable was suspended in Gomati district for his alleged role in urging people to cast votes in favour of the ruling BJP.

Opposition political parties, including CPI-M and Congress, complained that in several places, including Dhanpur and Kakraban, the ruling party workers obstructed the voters belonging to the opposition parties.

Ahead of voting starting at 7 a.m. across the state’s eight districts, men, women and first-time voters queued up in front of the polling stations well before the voting started at 7 a.m. in eight districts.

“EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines), which were not functioning properly, were replaced expeditiously by the engineers,” an election official said.

The CEO said that a total of 259 candidates, including 31 women, in the fray for the election to the 60-member house, and of them, the highest number (55) have been fielded by the ruling BJP, followed by the CPI-M (43), Tipra Motha Party (42), Trinamool Congress (28), and Congress (13). A total of 58 Independent candidates and 14 nominees from various smaller parties are also contesting the elections.

Around 31,000 personnel are stationed in 3,327 polling stations to conduct the voting.

In all, 28.14 lakh voters, including 13.99 lakh women, were eligible to cast their votes in Thursday’s balloting.

A senior police officer said the Union Home Ministry has provided 400 companies (30,000 security personnel) of Central Armed Police Force while around 9,000 Tripura State Rifles jawans and over 6,000 Tripura Police personnel have also been deployed to hold a fair and violence free elections.