The Urban Local Bodies elections passed off by and large peacefully in Tripura though there were sporadic violence in some wards of Agartala Municipal Council – and officials said about 65 per cent of total voters casting their franchise, till 3 pm.
Although there was no major incident anywhere reports of intimidations and preventing the opposition voters from casting their votes were reported from some AMC wards. In at least three incidents candidates and leaders of the opposition, especially TMC, were also physically assaulted. CPM which alleged large scale rigging said some of their candidates even could not vote. Both opposition CPM and TMC staged protests against poll rigging in front of two city police stations.
TMC leader Subal Bhowmik and CPM leader Fulan Bhattacharjee alleged rampant violence since last night to scare off the opposition voters and as soon as the polling began on Thursday morning the opposition polling agents were chased out of the booths and opposition voters were asked to leave as their ‘votes had already been cast’.
The ruling BJP denied the allegations and said that both the TMC and CPM were frustrated and they even did not find polling agents to represent them in the polling stations.
On candidates not being able to vote a BJP leader said, “this is a typical Marixist way of propaganda. The candidate might have not cast his or her vote on his or her own volition only to give credence to the allegation that BJP did not allow them to vote. Such an allegation finds immediate taker and has a potential for being highlighted at national level. It will then serve the oppotion purpose to put the ruling party and the government in bad light”.
A senior police officials told the tripuranet.com that in the morning from a city polling stations 44 persons- mostly outsiders- were arrested. These arrests were preventive in nature, he said.
Reports reaching here from other parts of the state however said the polling was largely peaceful, free and fair.
State Election Commission (SEC) officials said about 65 per cent of the 5,94,772 voters exercised their franchise till 3 p.m.
A total of 5,94,772 voters, including 3,00,777 women, were eligible to cast votes in the Agartala Municipal Corporations (AMC) and 19 other civic bodies – Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats. The ruling BJP has already secured a majority in the seven civic bodies in five districts.
On Thursday, elections took place in the 51-seat AMC and 171 seats in seven Municipal Councils and six Nagar Panchayats. BJP had already won 112 (34 per cent) of the 334 seats uncontested in the 19 urban local bodies in Jirania, Ranir Bazar, Mohanpur, Bishalgarh in western Tripura, Santir Bazar and Udaipur in southern Tripura and Kamalpur in northern Tripura.
A total of 785 candidates of various parties, including the BJP, the CPI-M-led Left, the Trinamool, and the Congress, are vying for 222 seats in the AMC and other civic bodies.
