A total of 72.32% voters cast their vote in 168 polling stations of West Tripura constituency, one of the two Lok Sabha seats of the state, where re-polling was conducted on Sunday, an official from the Election Department said.
Repolling at 168 polling stations out of a total of 1,679 was ordered by the Election Commission of India after declaring polling in these polling stations as ‘void’.
On Sunday, voting started from 7 am.
A total of 1,41,251 voters, including 69,328 women and three transgender people were enrolled to cast their vote in the 168 polling stations.
“The voting process was peaceful barring reports of EVMs malfunctioning in a few polling stations. These were replaced soon. We did not receive any complaints so far,” Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Suman Rakshit said.
The West Tripura seat went for polls in the first phase on April 11 that recorded 83% voter turnout.
After the polls, both the opposition parties CPM and Congress alleged massive booth rigging reportedly by ruling BJP workers and demanded fresh polls in the West Tripura seat.
Amidst their demands, returning officer of the West Tripura seat Dr. Sandeep Mahatme was replaced and he was barred from holding any election related post. Mahatme was replaced by Vikas Singh, former district magistrate of Dhalai and also returning officer of East Tripura constituency, the other Lok Sabha seat, during the polls.
{{/usCountry}}Amidst their demands, returning officer of the West Tripura seat Dr. Sandeep Mahatme was replaced and he was barred from holding any election related post. Mahatme was replaced by Vikas Singh, former district magistrate of Dhalai and also returning officer of East Tripura constituency, the other Lok Sabha seat, during the polls.
{{/usCountry}}Prior to his replacement, Mahatme informed the state’s additional chief electoral officer about irregularities in over 400 polling stations. More than 16 poll officials were suspended for allegedly vitiating the poll process in the West Tripura seat.
The BJP accused the CPM of attacking their supporters in a few places when they went to vote.
“We complained to the Election Commission about attacks on our workers. We are not surprised as we know that the CPM believes only in violence,” BJP’s chief spokesperson Dr. Ashok Sinha said.
Denying the allegation, CPM said that there is no democracy under the BJP’s rule and the repolling proved the same.
“If the BJP claims of good governance in their reign, then why did the repolling take place? There was massive booth rigging and violence in the first phase of the polls and we even filed a case in the Supreme Court demanding fresh polls in the West Tripura seat,” CPM’s West Tripura seat candidate Shankar Prasad Datta said.
The Congress too, claimed that violence had taken place in a few booths. “Our activists and voters complained of violence in a few polling booths. We were not happy with repolling in limited polling stations. And we will move the Supreme Court demanding fresh polls in the rest of the polling stations,” Congress vice president Pijush Kanti Biswas said.
The East Tripura constituency recorded 83.15% voter turnout on April 23.