Tripura bypolls: 87 pc voter turnout recorded, 6 injured in stray violence

Thousands could not cast votes because they were threatened and intimidated, claimed CPIM state secretary Jitendra Choudhury at a press conference.Choudhury said the Left Front has already written to the Election Commission of India ECI through the CEO, Tripura, demanding repolling in all the booths claiming that the ruling party used the entire civil and police administration to turn the polling into a farce.We also demand removal of Sepahijala SP Bogati J Reddy, returning officers of two Assembly constituencies for failing to conduct the election properly.

Nearly 87 per cent voter turnout was recorded till the end of polling in the by-elections to Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura's Sepahijala district on Tuesday, an official said.

Polling was largely peaceful barring an incident near Mohanbhog sub-zonal office under Dhanpur constituency where six youths were injured, officials said.

Villagers set fire to five motorcycles, triggering tension, but the situation was brought under control, a police officer said, adding, the injured have been admitted to hospital and are out of danger.

Dhanpur recorded 89.20 per cent polling and 83.92 per cent voting was registered in Boxanagar constituency, chief electoral officer (CEO) Puneet Agarwal told PTI.

''The polling was largely free, fair and peaceful with no major complaints. The entire voting process was live streamed from each polling booth,'' he said.

Asked if there was any demand for repolling, the CEO said a party had given a representation on certain points regarding the voting process. ''We will send the points raised by the political party to the district election officer (DEO) to verify their claims,'' he said.

The CPI(M) sought fresh polling in both Assembly constituencies claiming that the ruling party turned the voting into a farce.

''The entire voting process was rigged by the ruling party leaders. Thousands could not cast votes because they were threatened and intimidated,'' claimed CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Choudhury at a press conference.

Choudhury said the Left Front has already written to the Election Commission of India (ECI) through the CEO, Tripura, demanding repolling in all the booths claiming that the ruling party used the entire civil and police administration to turn the polling into a farce.

''We also demand removal of Sepahijala SP Bogati J Reddy, returning officers of two Assembly constituencies for failing to conduct the election properly. Besides, we also seek ECI’s intervention to conduct the repolling by engaging polling perosnnel from outside the district,'' he said.

BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee said the party was confident of winning both the seats with a huge margin and congratulated voters for coming out in large numbers and joining the festival of democracy. ''We congratulated the voters for participating in the byelections. The party also thanked police and polling personnel for making the voting free, fair and peaceful”, he said. BJP's Tafajjal Hussain, who unsuccessfully contested the last assembly election from Boxanagar, is contesting against CPI(M) nominee Mizan Hussain from there. The Boxanagar assembly segment has 66 per cent minority voters of a total of 43,087 electors.

In the last assembly elections in February, the CPI(M) retained the seat.

The Dhanpur assembly constituency, once considered a stronghold of the Left, witnesses a fight between the BJP's Bindu Debnath and Kaushik Debnath of the CPI(M). There are 50,346 voters.

The BJP won the seat for the first time in the assembly poll held seven months ago.

The by-election to the Boxanagar constituency was necessitated by the death of CPI(M) MLA Samsul Haque. Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik's resignation as the MLA of Dhanpur necessitated the by-election to that seat. The Congress and the Tripra Motha did not field their candidates in the two seats for the bypolls.

Votes will be counted on September 8.