Agartala, Sep 26 Campaigning for the village committee elections in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) ended peacefully at 4 pm on Saturday, an official said.
No untoward incident was reported during the canvassing period. Voting will take place on Monday.
Of the 4,597 seats in 587 village committees in the Sixth Schedule area, voting will take place in 2,950 seats as 1,644 seats have already been won by Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and BJP candidates unopposed.
There are altogether 9,61,977 voters but the number of electors who are eligible to exercise their franchise on Monday is likely to be lesser as many seats have been won uncontested.
As many as 8,176 candidates from all the major political parties — TMP, BJP, CPI(M), Congress and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) — are in the fray.
“Campaigning for the village committees ended on a peaceful note on Saturday. There had been no major untoward incident during the canvassing period. Voting will be held in 2,950 seats in 587 village committees on September 28,” state election secretary Anurag Sen told PTI.
He said all the necessary steps, including security arrangements, have been made to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in all 1,095 polling booths.
“Polling personnel are scheduled to depart for their respective booths with election materials on Sunday. Adequate security will be provided to them. Ballot papers will be used in the polls,” he said.
Three parties — BJP, TMP and IPFT — are contesting the elections as part of the NDA, while the CPI(M) and the Congress are contesting separately.
Of the total of 8,176 contesting candidates, the TMP has the highest number of nominees at 2,716, followed by the CPI(M) with 2,153 and the BJP with 1,774 aspirants.
The TTAADC has jurisdiction over two-thirds of the geographical area of the northeastern state but the population of around 15 lakh is relatively less compared to the plains.
(PTI News)
