Repolling in Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency on Sunday concluded with 72.32 per cent polling recorded till 5pm in 168 polling stations. Voting started from 7am and ended at 5pm.
Deputy chief electoral officer Suman Rakshit said, “Till 5pm, 72.32 per cent vote was recorded in the 168 polling booths. However, voting in a few booths continued after poll hours. The election was held in a peaceful way and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the constituency so far.”
On Tuesday, the Election Commission announced repoll in the 168 polling stations spread across 26 Assembly segments in four districts. It wrote to Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti that election held in the 168 polling stations on April 11 was “void”.
Tripura deputy inspector-general of police (DIG) Arindam Nath on Sunday told this correspondent that there was no major untoward incident during polling hours and 15 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) had been deployed in the state for poll duty.
“No booth-capturing was reported so far and no major incident took place during polling hours. We have got some reports regarding intimidating voters in Kasba, Chelikhola, Bishalghar and Totabari. Immediate action was taken and we deployed forces. We have arrested one Bijoy Das in the Golaghati Assembly segment,” Nath said.
Paresh Chandra Das, 80, of Assampara in Ranirbazaar subdivision of Majlispur Assembly segment claimed that there was no need for repoll. “I am 80 and not well. I have to travel 1km from my house to reach the polling station. My son Prabir helped me,” he said.
Prabir, who is a local businessman, said, “This repoll was unnecessary and disturbing. There was no need of it.”
Tripura West’s returning officer and district magistrate Vikash Singh told this correspondent that the election ended in a peaceful way.
“Nothing untoward happened because this time we increased security presence. The CAPF personnel were guarding all the 168 polling stations. We installed webcasting inside and outside the polling stations in addition to videographers. Section 144 of the CRPC was imposed. Everything has been peaceful, free and fair,” Singh said.
“Intimidation and attacks took place at Sonamura, Bishalgarh, Shalgarh and Kakraban,” Tripura Congress vice-president Tapas Dey
said.
CPM state secretary Gautam Das said, “We are partially satisfied, but the repolling was not peaceful at all. The ruling BJP-backed goons attacked our cadres.”
BJP spokesperson Ashok Sinha said their election agents were thrown out of some polling stations at Bishalgarh.
