INDIA bloc leaders approach EC over ‘poll violence’, demand repolling in Tripura West

The INDIA alliance leaders shot off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. They also met and sought intervention of Returning Officer Vishal Kumar and Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Puneet Agarwal.

As a part of the first phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections, polling started on time across 1,686 polling centres in the West Tripura Parliamentary constituency.

As many as 14,63,526 voters, including 7,34,133 males and 7,29,337 females, and 56 voters of the third gender, were scheduled to cast their votes in the constituency.

According to the latest inputs, a 80.40 percent voter turnout was recorded in the Parliamentary polls and 67.81 percent turnout was recorded in the Ramanagar by-polls till 5 pm.

Muslims, Opposition voters threatened, says Ashish Kumar Saha

In his complaints to the CEC, state Congress chief Ashish Kumar Saha alleged poll violations, intimidation and physical assaults on polling agents and voters at different locations of the state.

Speaking to reporters after submitting a memorandum to the Returning Officer, a delegation of INDIA alliance comprising Saha, who is also the West Tripura Parliamentary constituency candidate, Tripura Left Front convener Narayan Kar and former minister Manik Dey said reports of large scale manipulation started coming in since morning from various parts of the state.

Speaking to reporters, Saha said, “At a large number of polling booths, the polling agents of the INDIA bloc either have been driven out or in some cases, they were prevented from entering the booths. In some places, they were beaten up.”

He also said many voters, mostly Muslims and Opposition supporters, were threatened last evening and were asked not to reach the polling booths in the Ramnagar Assembly constituency.

“BJP workers had forcibly taken away the voters’ slips distributed by the Election Commission from many houses in this constituency (Ramnagar),” Saha said, adding that several booths were “captured and totally rigged”.

The INDIA alliance candidate also alleged that out of the polling agents at the 1,686 centres in the West Tripura Parliamentary constituency, around 1,500 of them were either denied entry or thrown out by force.

“In many booths, such as Bishalgarh, Sonamura, Udaipur, Santirbazar and Belonia, the polling agents were driven out and beaten up. In many places opposition voters are being driven away from the queues,” Saha said.

Seeking the poll body’s intervention, Saha said if the trend of manipulation continues, the poll process would be “totally farce”.

What Left Front said

The Left Front, which is a partner in the INDIA alliance, said in a statement this evening, “The electorate of Tripura West Lok Sabha seat and Ramnagar Assembly seat were surprised to see the utter failure of the Election Commission to help and allow a sizeable number of electorate to exercise their franchise and the tall talks and promises made by the Election Commission have become fruitless and toothless.”

It added, “Under the circumstances stated above, we, on behalf of the thousands and thousands of deprived electorate, have justifiably raised the genuine demand to the Election Commission to countermand both the elections held today (Friday) at the West Tripura Parliamentary seat and by-election to the Ramnagar Assembly seat and arrange fresh election in an atmosphere where the democratic rights of the electorate is properly protected and the people’s confidence on democracy can be restored.”

Speaking on the opposition allegations of poll violations, former chief minister Manik Sarkar said, “Voting rights are being looted in Tripura since 2018. The ruling party is trying to force its way to victory.”

Former minister and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Sudip Roy Barman cast his vote in Agartala and said voters and polling agents faced extensive political hooliganism across the state.

He alleged that while the ECI succeeded in preventing large-scale false voting like previous years, hooliganism and obstruction to voters over turning up at polling centres went on unchecked.

BJP’s retort

Meanwhile, a delegation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met the CEO and submitted a complaint accusing the opposition alliance of “spreading lies” about poll violence.

BJP state spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee said, “If there were genuine complaints, they (INDIA bloc) should have lodged specific complaints. Instead, they are spreading lies since this morning saying their polling agents were assaulted or denied entry into polling centres. These are blatant lies.”

Bhattacharjee also claimed the INDIA alliance leaders have failed to put up polling agents and are trying to accuse the BJP of violence to hide their failure.

BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharya said people have voted wholeheartedly and said the saffron party is contemplating to take legal action against those who spread lies about poll violence.