Tripura: 1,128 polling stations sensitive, no major violence in ADC areas

According to the Chief Electoral Officer, only 54 complaints have been received this year, much fewer than the 370 received ahead of the 2018 polls.

Written by Debraj Deb

Agartala | January 25, 2023 09:08 PM IST

2 min read

Compared with the last Assembly elections, when 370 written complaints were received from across the state, only 54 complaints were received this year and action was taken instantly on them, he said. (Representational image)

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Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said Wednesday that 1,128 polling booths of the state were identified as “sensitive” and that extra security deployment was being made for these seats.

Gitte said that the Election Commission analysed the sensitivity of polling stations on the basis of historical data on polling percentage and violence. “We have identified 1,128 sensitive polling stations. These include 1,100 vulnerable and 28 critical booths,” he told reporters.

Compared with the last Assembly elections, when 370 written complaints were received from across the state, only 54 complaints were received this year and action was taken instantly on them, he said.

Gitte also said that 600 complaints were received through the C-Vigil app and that 480 of them were resolved.

A few incidents of violence have occurred in the past few days, including the stabbing of a BJP activist, a TIPRA Motha supporter’s murder and assaults on workers of the ruling BJP and the Opposition CPM and Congress.

As per latest reports, 100 companies of additional central armed police forces have arrived in Tripura so far and more are on the way. Security personnel to be deployed at polling stations will arrive starting from February 9. Citing security reasons, however, Gitte did not reveal the total number of personnel to be deployed.

Special election observers and expenditure observers are already deployed. Officials were authorised to stop unauthorised processions. “If any such procession takes place and is not stopped by police, departmental action will be initiated,” the inspector general (law and order) said Tuesday.

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So far, no major incident of violence was sourced from the Autonomous District Council (ADC) areas. “Most incidents have occurred in South and West Tripura districts. These are the hotspots. We are working to make the situation better…,” Gitte said.

Polling is on February 16 and votes will be counted on March 2. There are 28,13,478 voters, 2.4 lakh more since the 2018 polls. The voters comprise 14,14,576 men,13,98,825 women and 77 transgender people.

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Election Commission Tripura