3 min readAgartalaFeb 18, 2023 03:27 AM IST
First published on: Feb 17, 2023 at 01:54 PM IST
A day after Tripura went to the polls, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Friday put the latest figure of poll turnout at 89.95 per cent, including 2.19 per cent votes polled through postal ballots.
“Since voters gathered in front of the polling stations before 4 pm (when polling officially ends), they had to be issued tokens and their votes had to be polled as per rules,” CEO Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said.
He said while 81.10 per cent initial poll turnout figures were received till 4 pm, polling was still going on in 125 polling stations during after-hours and in many of them voting continued till 8 pm.
“The turnout is much higher than we anticipated, especially from women, Bru voters and those from the third gender,” he said.
No irregularities were found during scrutiny of various poll reports by observers in any polling stations and no recommendations for repoll were made by observers in their scrutiny report.
An official from the CEO’s office said the data suggests women voted more than men this year. According to the data, 86.12 per cent men turned up to cast their mandate against 89.17 per cent women, while 67.74 per cent of the 77 voters of the third gender turned up to exercise their franchise.
Manu (ST-reserved), where CPI(M)’s sitting MLA Prabhat Chowdhury contested against BJP’s Mailaphru Mog and former MLA Dhananjoy Tripura from TIPRA Motha, recorded highest turnout at 92.09 per cent in the state.
Other constituencies that saw over 90 per cent turnout include Sabroom, from where opposition Left-Congress partnership’s possible CM-designate Jitendra Chaudhury contested; Belonia; Shantirbazaar; Herishyamukh; and Jolaibari — all in South Tripura district, indicating a generally high turnout in most parts of southern Tripura.
Apart from these, Nalchar in Gomati district and Suryamaninagar in West Tripura district saw over 90 per cent voting, along with Kamalasagar, Pratapgarh, Majlishpur, Bamutia and Mohanpur in the West district.
The lowest turnout (79.94 per cent) across the state was registered at Town Bardowali, from where CM Manik Saha contested to guard his fort against three-term MLA and Left-Congress partnership candidate Ashish Kumar Saha.
Similarly, Dhanpur, which gave former Chief Minister and Opposition leader Manik Sarkar four victories in the past but saw Sarkar step down to make way for a younger Kaushik Chanda, against BJP heavyweight and union minister of state Pratima Bhoumik, saw 88.51 per cent turnout.
Kailashahar in Unakoti district, where state Congress chief and former minister Birajit Sinha contested, polled 81.54 per cent votes, while Banamalipur — erstwhile home turf of former CM Biplab Kumar Deb where BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee contested this time — saw 80.51 per cent turnout.
Voters queue up outside a polling booth in Agartala on Thursday. (Photo: PTI) 
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