87 percent votes cast in Tripura civic polls

Agartala: Around 87 percent of the 537,968 voters on Wednesday cast their votes in civic polls in Left-ruled Tripura with no untoward incident from any part of the state reported during the day, an official said.

"Voting was absolutely peaceful and incident-free. Around 87 percent votes were polled. Not even a minor incident was reported from anywhere in the state," state election commission secretary Tamal Majumder said.

"No political parties even complained about any improper happenings," he told IANS.

The official said the elections were held on Wednesday to the 49-seat Agartala Municipal Corporation, 13 municipal councils and five Nagar Panchayats across the state.

There are a total of 886 contenders, including 429 women, from all parties in the fray. The Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress besides the Left Front are among those contesting the elections to the local urban bodies.

The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front has already won the Jirania Nagar Panchayat in western Tripura as the Left parties got most seats uncontested.

Inspector General of Police (law and order) Anurag said: "Over 6,600 security forces, including central-para military personnel, had been deployed to hold the civic polls peacefully. The Border Security Force (BSF) were asked to intensify their vigil along the India-Bangladesh border."

"In all, 86 mobile patrolling teams conducted close surveillance during the polls. Adequate number of personnel from CRPF, BSF and Assam Rifles were deployed in and around the polling stations," he added.

Currently, except in Ambassa Municipal Council in northern Tripura, the CPI-M-led Left parties are ruling in all the municipal bodies, including the politically-important Agartala Municipal Corporation.

State Election Commissioner G. Kameswara Rao told the media that by-elections to some seats in gram panchayat and panchayat samitis were also held on Wednesday.

He said that 537,968 people, including 268,754 women, were eligible to cast their votes in the municipal elections.

The 144-year-old Agartala Municipal Corporation is the oldest municipal body in the northeastern region.

The Agartala municipality, which turned into a corporation two years back, was constituted in 1871.