The ruling BJP won 85 per cent seats uncontested ahead of the July 27 panchayat polls.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, secretary of the state election commission (SEC), Prasenjit Bhattacharya, said, “Tripura’s ruling BJP has won 5,652 seats of the 6,646 seats in the state’s three-tier panchayats elections without any contest, which constitute 85 per cent of the total seats, including gram panchayats, panchayat samities and zilla parishad.”

He said polls would be held in 994 seats, including 833 gram panchayat, 82 panchayat samiti and 79 seats zilla parishad.

The CPM Politburo has issued a statement and said the panchayat polls in Tripura are witnessing a massive and widespread attack on the democratic process.

“During the nomination period, from July 1 to 8, candidates of the CPM and other Opposition parties were prevented from collecting and filing nomination papers by armed gangs of the BJP. Bike-borne hoodlums of the BJP were stationed before the election offices so that no Opposition candidate could collect or submit nomination papers. In most of the places, the police were just onlookers,” it said.

The statement also reads that physical attacks on prospective candidates were resorted to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

“As a result of this terror campaign, after the last date of withdrawal, over 90 per cent of the seats in the panchayats samitis and gram panchayats have gone uncontested to the BJP. There are now 306 candidates of the Left Front in the fray for the 6,111 panchayat samitis seats,” the press release reads.

Congress vice-president, Tapas Dey on Saturday alleged that because of the physical attacks by ruling BJP, they had to withdraw 124 candidates from the fray.

“Due to the physical attacks by ruling BJP on our candidates, we failed to submit nomination papers for the poll. We were forced to withdraw 124 candidates from the fray in the face of terror let loose by the goons of BJP”.

Rubbishing the allegation on Saturday, BJP spokesperson Ashok Sinha said, “The Opposition parties do not have any candidate to file the nomination for the panchayat polls. They are accusing us to keep their names in the headlines. Not a single poll-related violence has been reported so far. It’s all baseless”.

On June 26, the state election commission announced that the panchayat polls would be held on July 27.

State election commission, commissioner G. Kameswara Rao said the polls would be held in 6,111 gram panchayats, 419 panchayat samitis and 116 zilla parishads.

“The three-tier panchayat polls will be held from 7am till 4pm. Altogether 12,03,070 people, including 616,893 men and 586,176 women and one-third gender will be eligible to exercise their franchise in 2,623 polling stations,” he said.