Tripura by-election: More than 84% voting in 2 assembly constituencies
Agartala (IANS). More than 84 per cent of the 93,495 voters cast their votes on Tuesday in the by-elections to two assembly constituencies in Tripura – Boxanagar and Dhanpur.
Officials said that no untoward incident was reported from the two assembly constituencies of Sepahijala district.
However, CPI-M state secretary Jitendra Chaudhary claimed that the party’s polling agents could not operate at more than 50 per cent of the 110 polling stations in both the seats due to threats and intimidation from ruling BJP workers.
He said, “BJP workers rigged both the constituencies. Police and election officials turned a blind eye to this new style of intimidation of opposition voters and election agents.”
However, BJP leaders denied the allegations and claimed that voting on both the seats was held in a festive atmosphere without any problem.
The polling ended at 4 pm amid heavy security.
Even before the process started at 7 am, a large number of men and women were standing in queues in front of the polling stations. Overall, 93,495 voters, including 45,222 women, were eligible to cast their votes across 110 polling stations to decide the electoral fate of eight candidates.
For the first time in five years, a direct contest is being seen between the ruling BJP and the opposition CPI-M led Left Front. The state’s other two main opposition parties, Congress and Tipra Motha Party (TMP), had earlier announced not to field candidates from both the seats to prevent division of vote share.
TMP leaders led by Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman had announced not to support BJP or CPI-M in the bypolls, leaving the choice to voters and party workers.
On the other hand, Congress leaders including state unit president Ashish Kumar Saha and MLA Sudip Roy Barman had campaigned for the CPI-M candidates.
Saha told IANS that he has campaigned for Left candidates in both the constituencies to defeat the BJP and ensure the victory of the opposition India Alliance.
The by-elections held on Tuesday were its first electoral battle after the formation of the India Alliance.
CPI-M has fielded Mizan Hussain in Boxanagar and Kaushik Chanda in Dhanpur, while the ruling BJP has fielded Tafazzal Hussain in Boxanagar and Bindu Debnath in Dhanpur.
CPI-M’s Mizan Hussain and BJP’s Bindu Debnath are contesting for the first time, while Kaushik Chanda and Tafazzal Hussain had contested the assembly elections held in February this year.
In February, the Left parties and Congress had contested the elections together with a seat-sharing arrangement, while TMP had contested alone.
The by-election on Dhanpur seat was necessitated after Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik resigned from the Assembly days after being selected from the seat as the BJP candidate.
The Muslim-dominated Boxanagar assembly seat had fallen vacant after the death of sitting CPI-M MLA Samsul Haq. He died of a heart attack on 19 July.
