23.84 lakh to decide fate of 25 aspirants
Agartala: A total of 23.84 lakh voters will decide the fate of 25 candidates contesting in two Lok Sabha constituencies – West Tripura and East Tripura.
It means both seats look set to witness triangular contest, giving an edge to the ruling Left Front nominees- Sankar Prasad Dutta (West Tripura) and Jitendra Chowdhury (East Tripura).
While 13 candidates are still in the fray in the prestigious West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, 12 aspirants are seeking mandate from the East Tripura Lok Sabha seat, according to the reports available with the state election panel.
Of the total voters, male electors are 12.46 lakh while number of female voters stand at 11.37 lakh. It means, women voters will also play key role in deciding the fate of the contesting candidates.
Though a multi-corner electoral battle was supposed to take place given the number of the contesting candidates in both the seats, political analysts indicate a triangular fight is on the card. The electoral battle will be confined between ruling CPM-led Left Front and the beleaguered Congress.
However, Trinamool Congress may change the course of the electoral outcome this time with party supremo Mamata Banerjee trying hard to bite traditional anti-left vote bank.
Mamata, who had already addressed a rally at Vivekananda Stadium, is scheduled to arrive here on April 1 to address another rally. This time, she will address an election rally at Santir Bazar.
It seems, Mamata is leaving no stone unturned to make an impact in the state politics.
The state which goes to polling in two phases – April 7 for West Tripura Lok Sabha seat and April 12 for the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency – has 3,095 polling stations. Of the total polling stations, 20 have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 444 rated as sensitive in security and political point of view.
All the hyper and sensitive polling stations will be guarded by Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).
The state is expected to incur Rs 35 crore to conduct the Parliamentary elections, although the entire amount will be reimbursed by the Central government.
Manik to campaign in Assam, WB, Tamil Nadu
Along with Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar will campaign extensively in Assam, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in favour of left front candidates after April 12, the CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar said.
Sarkar is the only star campaigner for the state this time, so the party has planned to hold at least one meeting in each of the 60 assembly constituencies of Tripura.
Sarkar is scheduled to campaign for left front candidates in West Bengal in the election to be held on April 17, 24, 30 and May 7, 12.
Similarly, he will be campaigning for CPI-M candidates in Assam for the last phase of the election, scheduled on April 24 and Tamil Nadu, Dhar said.
He also claimed that no decision of the party has been taken in regard to supporting the Congress as was said by former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently.
Despite opposing the draconian sections of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Dhar said since insurgency has not yet been eradicated and militants are still active in other parts of the North East, the situation in Bangladesh was volatile and border fencing work has not been completed, the party prefers to continue the Act to sustain peace.
Contemplating a non-Congress and non-BJP government in the centre, Dhar pointed out, “We do not want to win by taking the advantage of vote division, we win for our good work for cross section of the society and Tripura model is well-appreciated all across.” (with agency inputs)