Agartala: The polling for the Tripura Assembly elections began amid tight security on Thursday.
The voting started at 7 AM till 4 pm.
According to the Election Commission, over 28.14 lakh electorates — 14,15,233 male voters, 13,99,289 woman voters, and 62 of the third gender, were eligible to cast their franchise.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Tripura recorded 86.10% voter turnout in Assembly elections on 16th February
- Tripura recorded 81% voter turnout recorded till 4 pm.
- Tripura recorded 69.9% voter turnout recorded till 3 pm.
- Tripura recorded 51.35% voter turnout recorded till 1 pm.
- Tripura witnessed a voter turnout of over 32.06% till 11 am in the ongoing polling for 60 Assembly seats.
- Tripura recorded 13.69% voter turnout till 9 am
- Tripura CM Dr Manik Saha cast his vote in Agartala.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to people in Tripura to vote in “record numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy” and specially called on the youth of the north-eastern state to exercise their franchise.
- Adequate security arrangements have been made at all 3,337 polling stations. The state has 97 all-women-managed police stations. It has 94,815 voters in the 18-19 age group and 6,21,505 in the 22-29 age group. The highest number of voters are in the 40-59 age group at 9,81,089.
- The fate of 259 candidates will be sealed on 60 Assembly.
- A triangular contest is on the cards as Congress and CPIM, which have been arch rivals for years, stitched a pre-poll alliance to defeat the ruling BJP, while the BJP is contesting in alliance with Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Tipra Motha, which is being seen as a kingmaker in case of a hung assembly scenario. Tipra Motha has emerged as an influential regional party, floated by the royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma in 2021. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress has also put up candidates for several seats.
- The BJP is contesting on 55 seats and its ally, IPFT, on six seats. But both allies have fielded candidates in the Ampinagar constituency in the Gomati district.
- The Left will contest 47 and Congress on 13 seats, respectively. Of the total 47 seats, the CPM will contest 43 seats while the Forward Bloc, Communist Party of India ( CPI) and Revolutionary Socialist Party ( RSP) will contest one seat each.