Tripura civic polls: BJP sweeps 8 municipal bodies, leading in 6; TMC finishes second in Agartala Municipal Corporation
In Agartala Municipal Corporation the party got 58,221 votes while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) finished at a distant second with 22,295 votes. The Communisit Party of India (Marxist) finished third with 15,960 votes.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday swept eight out of the 14 municipal bodies in Tripura and is leading in the remaining six of them, according to the counting reports till 12pm.
In Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC), the party got 58,221 votes while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) finished at a distant second with 22,295 votes. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) finished third with 15,960 votes. The BJP has in total won 46 wards of the AMC, according to the latest update.
The counting of votes began at 8am on the day amid tight security measures provided by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and the state police unit.
As many as 222 out of the total 334 seats in the state, across six nagar panchayats, seven municipal councils and the Agartala Municipal Corporation, went to the polls on November 25 that saw a voter turnout of 81.54 per cent.
In the remaining 112 seats, the BJP has already been declared the winner as they remained uncontested by other parties.
The election has been fraught with allegations of violence and malpractices by the two main opposition parties in the northeastern—the TMC and the CPM.
The BJP contested its first civic polls in the state after forming the government there in 2018. The counting began positively for the BJP earlier in the day, after it was leading in Ambassa, Jirania, Teliamura and Sabroom seats, news agency ANI reported citing the State Election Commission.
The BJP’s national vice president Dilip Ghosh on Sunday told reporters his party shared a “strong bond” with the people of Tripura. Ghosh said the results have exposed the “hollowness” of the opposition TMC’s claims about making inroads into the state, news agency PTI reported.
He said that the TMC will not be able to make any gains in the eastern state “unless the BJP decides against fielding candidate from any seat.”
“The civic poll results are on expected lines. The TMC did not have any chance to open its account in Tripura, they only made noises. This verdict shows hired people from West Bengal cannot help a party create a base in a state, which has faith in the BJP,” PTI quoted the BJP leader as saying.
