Tripura Assembly elections 2018: Voting concludes peacefully, 78.5% overall turnout recorded

AGARTALA: The voting for 59 seats in Tripura Assembly elections concluded peacefully on Sunday with an overall voter turnout of more than 78 per cent.

"Voter turnout till now (around 9 pm) is 78.56 per cent. Voting is still underway at few polling stations. Voting slips were distributed till 4 pm and those voters are at the booths," the Election Commission told ANI.

"No incidents of violence were reported from anywhere in the state. Two crude bombs were recovered which were disposed off," the EC added.

The polling of one constituency has, however, been rescheduled because of the demands of one candidate. The polling will be held on March 12.

"In one constituency, the polling will be held on 12th March as it was rescheduled because of demands of one candidate," the EC said.

The Tripura Assembly polls for the first time experienced VVPAT machine in all 3,214 polling booths.

"VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura," it said.

Following complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, the Commission replaced 12 ballot units.

"There were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, many were found to be false. 12 ballot units were replaced," it added.

A total of 292 candidates are in the fray, including 23 women and many Independents.

There are a total of 25,73,413 registered voters – including of 13,05,375 males and 12,68,027 females. The number of voters under the third gender category in Tripura is 11 and that of the new voters is 47,803.

The result will be declared on March 3.

The state is witnessing a fierce battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Left Front – CPI (M), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) – has been in power in the state for the last 25 years, with incumbent Chief Minister Manik Sarkar at the helm for the past 19 years. 

The voting is being held in 59 seats, out of the total 60. CPIM candidate for the Charilam constituency Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma died six days ago. The assembly constituency will now go to polls on March 12.

In few constituencies, voters had queued up at polling booths before 7 am. In few hilly and tribal areas, women had huddled in large numbers outside poll booths in their colourful traditional attires.

The BJP entered a pre-poll alliance with tribal political outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), while the Congress is contesting the polls alone. 

The campaigning for the Tripura Assembly elections concluded on February 16. 

Earlier, the Election Commission appointed ITBP Director General R K Pachnanda the special observer for the election in Tripura.  The CPI(M) has dubbed the move as "unusual". The party also objected to his closed-door meeting with the state BJP president.