The Election Commission has postponed by five days polling in the Tripura East (ST) seat amid fears of rigging and allegations of violence in the BJP-ruled state.

The polling has been rescheduled from April 18 to 23.

The postponement came on a day CPM supporters said they found handwritten threat notes with severed chicken heads in front of their houses at dawn. “If you go to vote on April 18, you will face the same fate,” read the notes found at Jambura village, 55km from here, in Khowai district that falls in the Tripura East seat.

Police denied any knowledge of the threat.

Of the two Lok Sabha seats in Tripura, the first (West Tripura) went to the polls on April 11 when “mass rigging” was alleged by the Opposition.