BJP wins 112 out of 334 seats uncontested in Tripura civic polls

Tripura’s CPM, which ruled the state for decades before being evicted from power in the 2018 state elections, alleged attacks on its party activists prevented its candidates from filing its papers.

AGARTALA: Tripura’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won uncontested 112 out of 334 seats across 20 local civic bodies including the Agartala municipal corporation. Elections to the state’s municipal bodies are scheduled to be held on November 25, said an official of the state election commission. The votes will be counted on November 28.

Chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb-led BJP has won uncontested 112 out of 334 seats across 20 municipal councils. Elections are due to be held on November 25; the votes will be counted three days later on November 28 (PTI)

“After scrutiny and withdrawal of some nominations, 785 candidates from different political parties are in the fray. The BJP won 112 seats uncontested out of a total of 334 seats, “ said the official.

Most of the seats won uncontested were in municipal councils of Mohanpur, Ranirbazar, Udaipur, Bishalgarh, Santirbazar and Jirania and Kamalpur town panchayats where the opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) alleged their candidates could not file their nominations due to violence triggered by the ruling party cadres.

Tripura’s CPM secretary Jitendra Chaudhury said, “The violence began much ahead of the announcement of schedule of the civic polls and the intensity increased after the announcement of the polls. Many of our party activists were attacked and our candidates in five municipal councils and two nagar panchayats could not file their nominations.”

Election officials said over 5.94 lakh people including 3.7 lakh women are entitled to vote across the 20 municipal bodies.

A total of 770 polling stations would be set up for the polls.

November 3 was the last date for filing nominations. Later, 36 candidates withdrew their nomination papers.

The civic polls were initially scheduled to be held in December last year but were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya said his party didn’t want to win uncontested but “the opposition wasn’t accepted by the people”. He dismissed the CPM contention that its candidates were not allowed to file their nomination as a “baseless excuse”, insisting that the his party won a large number of seats as opposition parties did not find acceptance among people.