Tripura to vote on Thursday; 3-cornered contest on the cards | Latest News India

AGARTALA: The election commission has made all preparations for violence-free polling on the 60 assembly segments in Tripura that will vote on Thursday, a state election official said. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) are pitted against the Left-Congress combine and TIPRA Motha, a regional party floated by the royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma in 2021.

The polling will begin at 7am across 3,337 polling stations including 1,100 classified as sensitive and 28 as critical. A total of 28.13 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes, including 13.98 lakh women. In all, 259 candidates are in the fray.

The BJP is contesting on 55 seats and its ally, IPFT, on six seats. Both allies have fielded candidates in the Ampinagar constituency in Gomati district.

The Left and the Congress, which have been arch rivals for years, have teamed up this time and will contest on 47 and 13 seats, respectively, in an effort to dislodge the saffron party from power.

Of the total 47 seats, the CPM will contest 43 seats while the Forward Bloc, Communist Party of India ( CPI) and Revolutionary Socialist Party ( RSP) will contest one seat each.

The Left will support an independent candidate in Ramnagar who will contest against BJP candidate Surajit Datta.

The TIPRA Motha has fielded candidates for 42 seats. Pradyot Kishore is not contesting this time and has claimed that neither the BJP nor the Left-Congress combine will be able to secure a majority on their own.

The Trinamool Congress has fielded candidates in 28 seats.

Votes will be counted on March 2.

Prohibitory orders have been issued in the state that will continue till 6am on February 17 and over 250 checkpoints have been set up.

In all, a total of 400 companies of central armed police forces have been made deployed.

Over 36 complaints of pre-poll violence were received by the Election Commission so far, according to a statement by chief electoral officer.

The Congress and the Left conducted a low-key campaign anchored by local leaders, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) national secretary Sitaram Yechury and Congress Tripura in-charge Ajoy Kumar, a sharp contrast to the BJP which saw its top leaders including PM Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah campaigning for the party.

TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also campaigned in the state.