From Our Correspondent
Agartala: The election to the 60-member Tripura Assembly recorded a high turnout with around 90 per cent voters casting their ballots on Thursday, official sources said.
The election to the new Assembly in Left-ruled Tripura also passed off peacefully with no major untoward incident reported. Though the polling began on a dull note in the early hours, it picked up towards the scheduled finishing time.
In the rural and militancy infested belts too, high percentage of polling was reported.
Recorded turnout at Amarjyotibari SB School under Mandwai Assembly constituency in West Tripura district was around 68 per cent till 1 PM. In another polling station- Bardowali HS School under prestigious Town Bardowali Assembly constituency, 90 per cent turnout till 3.30 PM.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar cast his vote at a booth in Sishu Bihar School in Ramnagar constituency. Governor Dr DY Patil also voted at a booth in Kunjavan Township School in Agartala constituency.
“High percentage of polling – over 90 per cent was recorded and it may go up as final statements are yet to be received by the State Election Machinery,” Chief Electoral Officer Ashutosh Jindal said here.
In the 2008 Assembly elections, around 92 per cent turnout was recorded, official sources informed. With the main contest between the Left Front and the Congress, CPI-M, the dominant partner in the LF is contesting in 55 seats, RSP 2, CPI 2 and Forward Block 1.
The Congress is contesting 48 seats and its alliance partners Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) in 11 and National Conference of Tripura in 1.
CPM state unit secretary Bijan Dhar on Thursday said the high percentage of polling reflects that people want peace and development.
Praising election officials and security personnel for ensuring an incident-free election, Dhar said “The mandate will be in favour of the ruling Left Front”.
Meanwhile, PCC president Sudip Roy Barman also sounded optimistic about the party’s victory in the elections. “The high percentage of polling reflects people’s silent revolt against the Left Front government in Tripura”, he said.
PTI adds
Police said that five crude bombs hidden in a bush were recovered from Bodhjungnagar area of Khayerpur constituency by a CRPF patrol. No untoward incident was reported during polls.
Voting had to be stopped at Sonamura in West Tripura district and Dharmanagar in South Tripura district for some time following a technical snag in EVMs and resumed after 10 minutes after the EVMs were replaced, poll officials said.
250 companies of central paramilitary forces were deployed to maintain law and order. The BSF had sealed the 856 km-long border with Bangladesh and deployed additional forces to prevent infiltration.
A total of 30 general observers, 10 expenditure observers, eight awareness observers and eight police observers were appointed for ensuring the conduct of smooth and fair elections in the state.
Earlier, in Delhi, Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla said the highest voting of 99 per cent was recorded in a polling booth at Chanman JB School under Radha Kishorpur assembly constituency in Gomati district, where 600 of the 605 voters cast their votes.
As a measure to increase the poll percentage of employees on poll duty, the Election Commission had made special arrangement for recording postal ballot at the polling stations itself.
Shukla said this is the first time such “facilitation” for postal ballot was made by ECI. “This helped in recording 95.6 per cent polling through postal ballot of employees on poll duty,” he said, adding that a total of 46,000 employees were deputed on poll duty.
Manik Sarkar, Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury, Higher Education minister Anil Sarkar, TPCC president Sudip Ray Barman, former chief minister Samir Ranjan Burman and President of the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura Bijay Hrankhwal were among 249 candidates from 16 political parties whose fate was sealed in the EVMs.