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Journalism of Courage
As Tripura commenced counting of votes for the ongoing three-tier panchayat elections on Wednesday, Opposition parties including, Congress and CPI (M), said they apprehend the result would not reflect true public mandate as a large number of voters were allegedly not allowed to cast votes.
Polling was announced in 6,111 seats of 591 Gram Panchayats, 419 seats of Panchayat Samities and 116 seats in eight Zilla Parishad bodies of Tripura this year. However, actual polls would be held only in 833 seats of Gram Panchayats, 82 seats of Panchayat Samiti and 79 seats of Zilla Parishad bodies as the others went uncontested.
As per latest reports, 76.63 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the seats that underwent polling.
“Communist party supporters were barred from voting in many places and polling booths were captured in many booths of South Tripura and Gomati districts. Polling agents were not allowed to join their duty stations and the polls were vitiated in a large way,” Tripura Left Front convener Bijan Dhar told reporters.
He also said the series of poll vitiations, since BJP-led government came to power in Tripura last year, has led people to wonder whether democracy can be revived through democratic means. Dhar added his party would focus on mobilising more people into mass movements.
The Left Front has submitted a memorandum to Director General in-charge Rajiv Singh to ensure a smooth, free and fair counting process.
Congress said that they apprehend that the voters’ mandate might not reflect in the result.
A senior leader of the party said the counting process might be vitiated in the same way the polling process was disturbed. He has requested the state election commission and state police to ensure peaceful counting process.
However, the party spokesperson Harekrishna Bhowmik said, “Ruling BJP has created an ambience of terror in the panchayat areas. This is not the last election and we will agree with people’s mandate on July 31.”
Meanwhile, the ruling saffron party denied all allegations and claimed they are confident people will repose faith in them.
BJP state general secretary Rajiv Bhattacharya told reporters that he hopes people have cast their mandate in favour of BJP like the 2018 assembly elections and 2019 Parliament polls. Speaking on Opposition’s allegation of unleashing political violence on them, Bhattacharya said they had lost political relevance.
The State Election Commission has assured that all necessary security measures were kept in place to ensure free and fair counting process.
