Tripura Christians seek change in TTAADC poll date as it clashes with Easter day
- The TTAADC has 30 seats, of which 28 are elected and two are nominated.
The Christians community has appealed to the Tripura Election Commission to reschedule the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls to be held on April 4 as it clashes with Easter Sunday.
"The scheduled date of elections, 4th April 2021, falls on Easter Sunday, which is the culmination of the weeklong obligatory observance of faith for all Christians around the world. Elections held on Easter Sunday would certainly hamper their wholehearted participation in the electoral process," said spokesperson of Diocese of Agartala, Father Joseph Pulinthanath.
The United Christian Forum for Human Rights also appealed for rescheduling the poll. "April 4th this year happens to be on Sunday and it is the feast day for Christians. We celebrate on that day the 'EASTER DAY'(resurrection of Jesus Christ). ...want to register our objection to the declared date (April 4) and request you to kindly change the date," said a release issued by the United Christian Forum for Human Rights.
The TTAADC has 30 seats, of which 28 are elected and two are nominated.
A total of 865,041 voters including 436,548 males and 428,490 females are eligible to exercise their franchise on the polling day.
The nominations for the poll need to be filed by March 12, while scrutiny of the nomination papers will be done on March 15. The final date for withdrawal of the nominations has been fixed for March 17. If required, re-poll would be conducted on April 07. Counting of the votes will be done on April 08.
Secretary of the state election commission, Prasenjit Bhattacharya said, "We have not yet received any letter regarding rescheduling of TTAADC poll. So, nothing can be said in this regard as of now."