။ Record 84 per cent votes polled in Tripura Election

< Voters await their turn to cast their ballot at a polling station in Ramchandraghat village (Left) and Gamchacobra village (Right) in Tripura today.
Agartala, 23 April : Voting to elect two Lok Sabha members from the northeastern state of Tripura ended peacefully Thursday evening with more than 80 percent people exercising their franchise. “Over 80 percent of the 20.8 lakh voters cast their ballot across the state,” said Dilip Acherjee, additional chief electoral officer.
The prominent candidates are six-time MP Bajuban Reang of CPI(M) from Tripura east while his party colleague Khagen Das contested from Tripura west. Altogether, 19 candidates, including one woman, were in the contest for the two seats, polling for which was held amidst tight security. The total number of voters in the state is 20,82,205, the sources said. DIG (Police control), Nepal Das said not a single untoward incident was reported from any part of the state. “In the wake of possible militants’ violence, 30,000 security personnel were deployed while two air surveillance teams led by senior police officials also keept vigil by two military helicopters,” Das said.

State CPI (M) leader and Tripura Rural Development & Panchayet Minister Jitendra Chowdhury expressed happiness over the peaceful and huge turn out. “We are happy with the (huge turnout) and the polling so far is peaceful,” he told Bengal Newz.

Six central observers, 266 magistrates and 500 micro-observes were appointed to oversee the poll process and ensure free and fair elections, said Sanjeev Ranjan, the chief electoral officer of the state. About 20,000 poll officials escorted by security forces were manning 3,008 polling stations across the state, the poll official said.

Besides sealing the India-Bangladesh international border, night curfew was imposed along the 856-km long territory with Bangladesh, Ranjan said. ။ Photo : Reuters & Parthajit Dutta

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Gates on India-Bangladesh border fence open for Tripura voters

Agartala, 23 April : The gates on the barbed wire fence along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura would remain open till the balloting ends to enable all voters to exercise their franchise, an official said here Thursday.

"We have asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to open the gates on the border fence for the whole day to facilitate the voters to exercise their franchise," said Dilip Acherjee, additional chief electoral officer. The fence is 150 yards from the actual border, and many Indians have their homes and farms in between. The gates are usually opened 2-3 times day to enable them to move back and forth.

An estimated 45,000 people from 10,000 families were displaced after their homes and farms fell outside the fence. Though a large number of people shifted their houses inside the fencing, several thousand families still live outside.