72 hours after polling, Tripura CPM flags ‘official claims of turnout exceeding 100%’, seeks fresh elections

In a letter to the Election Commission, CPM alleges a mismatch between the actual turnout and the 'official' figures for three Assembly segments under the West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency.

A polling official checks EVMs kept inside a strong room ahead of the first phase of voting for Lok Sabha elections in Agartala. (PTI)

Written by: Debraj Deb

3 min readAgartalaApr 23, 2024 07:32 AM IST First published on: Apr 22, 2024 at 08:00 PM IST

Three days after demanding fresh polling in West Tripura, which voted on April 19, the Opposition CPM has written to the Election Commission of India flagging “official claims” of voter turnouts of more than 100 per cent having been recorded in three Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituency.

CPM Tripura secretary Jitendra Chaudhury cited polling figures that he said were sourced from the office of the returning officer and alleged that in part 44 of the Majlishpur segment, parts 25 and 44 of the Khayerpur segment, and part 38 of the Mohanpur segment, turnouts of 105.30 per cent, 100.15 per cent, 98.80 per cent and 109.09 per cent, respectively, had been recorded.

“The above records unequivocally vindicates that, the election to West Tripura Parliamentary Constituency and the by-election to Ramnagar assembly constituency, which is a part of the same parliamentary constituency, were not held in a free, fair and normal manner. Such mismatched polling percentage may happen only when the booths are captured and completely rigged in an organized manner,” he wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Chaudhury explained that the data was sourced from polling station-wise turnout reports made available to his party by the returning officer’s office. While polling station-wise data, which reflects the presiding officer’s report to the returning officer, is not publicly available, it can be accessed on demand, he said.

Read | Notch up highest voter turnout percentage, win Rs 2 lakh: Tripura Minister Ratan Lal Nath tells BJP workers

West Tripura Returning Officer Vishal Kumar was unavailable for comment.

Chaudhury, who is the leader of the Opposition, also said the mismatch in the figures justified the Congress’s and the CPM’s demand to countermand the elections held on April 19 to both the Lok Sabha and the Assembly seats and to hold fresh polls to “prevent the robbing of the people’s mandate”.

Left Front convener Narayan Kar had said shortly after the polling was over in West Tripura that the Opposition would demand fresh polls in both seats. “The electorate of Tripura West Lok Sabha seat and the Ramnagar Assembly seat were surprised to see the utter failure of the Election Commission to help and allow a sizeable number of the electorate to exercise their franchise and the tall talks and promises made by the Election Commission have become fruitless and toothless,” he had said.

Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman had alleged that while the Election Commission had succeeded in preventing large-scale bogus voting, hooliganism had gone unchecked and that voters had been prevented from turning up to exercise their franchise.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee said on Monday, “We have not seen the data… The Election Commission will look into the matter. Whatever decision the Election Commission takes, we are with it.”