Repolling ordered in 168 polling booths of West Tripura Lok Sabha seat on May 12

The Election Commission of India has issued the order following major opposition parties' demand to hold a fresh poll in the entire parliamentary constituency.

The opposition political parties including Congress and CPI (M) alleged that massive rigging, booth capturing, irregularities happened in the constituency during the voting that was held on April 11 last.

Repoll in the 168 polling booths out of 1679 polling stations, spread over 26 out of 30 assembly constituencies under West Tripura Lok Sabha seat will be held on May 12 next.

Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti said that repoll will be held at 168 polling booths of West Tripura seat on May 12 and all security measures have been taken up.

Meanwhile, additional security personnel have started arriving in the North Eastern Indian state for deployment of the repoll exercise.

“Central paramilitary forces will be deployed in all the polling booths,” the Tripura CEO said.

On the other hand, expressing dissatisfaction over the ECI’s order, Tripura Congress vice president Tapas Dey said that, massive rigging, booth capturing incidents happened in the entire constituency, but the EC has ordered to hold repoll only in few polling stations.

“We are very surprised. There is no other option for us but to move the Supreme Court,” Tapas Dey said.

On the other hand, the EC had removed West Tripura District Magistrate Sandeep Namdeo Mahatme, who was the Returning Officer of West Tripura Lok Sabha seat and he was replaced by East Tripura RO and District Magistrate of Dhalai, Vikash Singh.

(By Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)