Agartala: The final voting figure for the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) and Urban Local bodies (ULBs) stood at 75.86 per cent, results of which would be declared on November 28, an official from the state election commission said.
The ruling BJP has claimed that the polling was held peacefully, while opposition CPIM and Trinamool Congress have expressed displeasure against the election commission, Returning Officers and police officials, and the way polls were conducted. The opposition parties have demanded fresh polls.
Addressing a press conference, Left Front convenor Narayan Kar said the state election commission had failed to conduct free and fair elections.
“The SEC surrendered before the ruling BJP and the DGP was responsible for scuttling the polls. Except for a few policemen, most of the police played a negative role in the entire elections,” Kar alleged.
The veteran leader also claimed that the ruling BJP had captured polling stations at Agartala, Belonia, Dharmanagar, Khowai and Melaghar urban local bodies.
“Left leaders and supporters were attacked across the state. Around 40 workers were injured, of which three are in critical condition,” Kar added.
Trinamool Congress convener Subal Bhowmik also alleged that out of the 51 TMC candidates in AMC, 10 candidates could not cast their vote today.
“We do not accept the polls and would seek the Supreme Court intervention to conduct fresh polls in the Agartala Municipal Corporation,” Bhowmik said.
Reacting to the allegations, BJP state spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya refuted the reports and claimed that the polls were held in “a festive manner”.
“The allegation raised by the opposition parties has no base, and we have no reports of booth capturing or forced voting in any of the ULBs. Some of the leaders have alleged that their agents were not allowed to enter the polling station. But they had not even collected the form,” Bhattacharya said.
Voting for the Agartala Municipal corporation (AMC) and 12 other Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of Tripura began on Thursday morning amidst tight security arrangements.
A total of 785 candidates from all the parties were in fray in 13 ULBs. The counting of votes will take place on November 28.
A total of 644 polling stations were been set up across these ULBs where voting is currently underway. Of these, 370 polling stations have been identified as ‘A” category and the rest as ‘B’ category.
The Tripura police has deployed 2 companies of Border Security Force (BSF) and 500 Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans in addition to the regular security deployment following the Supreme Court intervention.
The ruling BJP has already won in 112 seats and seven ULBs uncontested as no other political parties had fielded their candidates. The civic body polls were due last December but due to the COVID-19 outbreak the polls were postponed by the state election commission.
Meanwhile, Tripura police, in a press statement, said that except for some stray incidents at Agartala and Melaghar, no major incident has been reported from any part of the state. The electors have exercised their franchise freely. One polling agent of the TMC party was hurt in an incident near Acharya Prafulla Chandra School under NCC PS at about 8 am in which two persons were detained. A case is being registered in this regard.
In another incident at Melaghar, a CPIM candidate for Ward No – 4 has alleged that he was assaulted and moved out of the booth by a group of BJP supporters. Police said a case has been registered against 5 people.
“At booth No. 9 of AMC Ward No 8 Indranagar High School under NCC PS and Ward No 5 of Sonamura Nagar Panchayat at NCI School, some miscreants tried to damage the EVMs due to which voting was suspended for some time. Timely intervention of civil authorities ensured resumption of the voting process. There were some complaints related to alleged obstructions/ threatening the voters, candidates, polling agents, which were resolved by police through timely intervention,” the press statement added.
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