Opposition demands rescheduling panchayat by-elections in Tripura

The opposition Left Front in Tripura Friday demanded to reschedule of by-elections in over 3,000 seats of the three-tier panchayat slated for September 30.

The Left Front claimed that opposition candidates could not file nomination papers due to "attacks and intimidations" by BJP miscreants. The LF also demanded that an all-party be convened by the State Election Commission to discuss the issue.

A four-member LF delegation comprising CPI leader Ranjit Majumder, All India Forward Bloc leader Raghunath Sarkar, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) secretary Sudarshan Bhattacharya and CPI-M central committee member, Gautam Das met Tripura State Election Commissioner GK Rao and put forward the demands. The polls would be held in 3207 seats in gram panchayats, 161 seats in panchayat samities and 18 seats in Zila parishes as the seats fell vacant due to mass scale the resignation of the office bearers after the BJP-Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura came to power. Earlier this month, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), the junior alliance partner of the BJP and opposition Congress had also made the same demands.

"Many candidates, mostly from opposition parties and even IPFT could file nomination papers due to physical attacks and intimidations by the ruling BJP miscreants in block premises," CPI (M) spokesperson Gautam Das told a press conference. On Wednesday, former chief minister and leader of the opposition Manik Sarkar alleged that democracy was being "slaughtered" in Tripura. He alleged that CPI(M) and Congress workers were barred from filing nomination papers to contest in the panchayat by-elections.