Alternate arrangements for 12,081 Bru Voters; 15 special polling stations

Alternate arrangements were being made at Kanhum village in Mizoram-Tripura border, where 15 special polling stations, erected for the 12,081 Bru voters lodged in six relief camps in Tripura, were damaged in a thunderstorm, CEO Ashish Kundra Saturday said. Polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram and by-election to the Aizawl West - I would be held simultaneously on April 11.

The Chief Electoral Officer said while 15 special polling stations were established at a playground and a nearby community hall for the Mizoram Assembly election held on November 28 last year, alternate arrangements were being made to erect nine polling stations at a nearby Catholic School building. The CEO said that the logistics would be like as was done during last year polling and the Tripura government would arrange the vehicles for transportation of the Bru voters from the relief camps to the Mizoram border.

Over 6,000 Bru voters had exercised franchise at the 15 polling stations in Kanhmun village during polling for state Assembly elections last November. The NGO Coordination Committee (NGOCC), an umbrella organisation of the major civil societies and student organisations of Mizoram, which had threatened to boycott the coming election by organising state-wide indefinite bandh from Monday next, withdrew its plan of agitation.

The pleas of the Bru leaders to the Election Commission to allow them to cast their votes at their respective relief camps has been rejected by the poll panel. 

(With inputs from agencies.)