The bypolls to 67 seats in 14 municipal bodies of Tripura saw 80 per cent turnout on Thursday.

The voting began at 7am and ended at 4pm.

State election commission secretary Prasenjit Bhattacharjee said polling started on schedule and there was no report of any violence till the latest report came in.

“Voters cast their votes on ballot papers from 7am till the end of the polling process at 4pm today with around 80 per cent turnout. Further compilation of data is in progress,” Bhattacharjee said.

On November 23, state election commissioner G. Kameshwara Rao had announced byelection to 158 seats in 14 municipal bodies of the state, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation.

Altogether 1,70,341 voters were scheduled to cast their votes in the 158 municipal seats. However, Opposition parties could not field candidates in many seats and bypolls were announced in 67 seats.

On Thursday, Opposition CPM’s West Tripura district secretary Pabitra Kar staged a protest near the office of the sadar sub-divisional magistrate here and alleged that “BJP-backed goons” did not allow Left candidates and polling agents to enter the polling booths.

“In some places, the candidates was not allowed to cast their votes. BJP-backed goons forced polling agents to leave polling stations at ward numbers 3, 4, 35 and 47 of the Agartala Municipal Corporation. We are formally withdrawing our candidates from the seats in Agartala municipal body to avert any further attack,” Kar said.

Addressing a news conference at Tripura Pradesh Congress Bhawan here in the evening, party spokesperson Harekrishna Bhowmik also alleged that “BJP-backed goons” did not allow Opposition polling agents to enter the booths.

However, police said there was no report of any violence from anywhere during polling hours.

Reacting to CPM’s statement, BJP spokesperson Ashok Sinha said, “To hide their failure they are making baseless allegations.”