TRIPURA GOES TO POLLS TOMORROW

Tripura would go to polls tomorrow with the BJP emerging as the main challenger to the ruling Left Front, which has been in power in the state for the last 25 years. Polling would be held in 59 seats of the total 60 seats in the state. Due to death of Ramendra Narayan Debbarma, the CPI(M) candidate for the Charilam Assembly, the voting of the constituency would be held on March 12. 20 seats of the 60 member’s Tripura Assembly have been reserved for the scheduled tribes. For the first time the BJP stands as the main rival of the Left Front in the state. The saffron party held a high-voltage campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as four rallies in the state. Others heavyweight leaders of the BJP to take part in the campaign were national president Amit Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh including central ministers arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi adityanath, Assam’s minister Himanta Bishwa Sarma. The AICC President Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally at Kailashahar in Unakoti District on the last day of campaigning.

Altogether, 307 candidates are in the fray. The CPI(M) is contesting in 57 seats and while the other Left Front parties, the RSP, Forward Block and CPI in one seat each. The BJP, which has forged an alliance with tribal party Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura(IPFT) has fielded 51 candidates while IPFT will contest in the remaining 9 seats. Congress is going alone in the state this time and will contest in 59 seats. The party has not fielded any candidate for Kakrabon  constituency in Gomati district.

There are 25,73,413 electorate, of whom 13,05,375 are males and 12,68,027 are females, while the number of third gender voter is 11. There are 47,803 new voters this time.

The counting of votes in the state would take place on March 3.