As Tripura commenced counting of votes for the ongoing three-tier panchayat elections on Wednesday, Opposition parties including, Congress and CPI (M), said they apprehend the result would not reflect true public mandate as a large number of voters were allegedly not allowed to cast votes.
Polling was announced in 6,111 seats of 591 Gram Panchayats, 419 seats of Panchayat Samities and 116 seats in eight Zilla Parishad bodies of Tripura this year. However, actual polls would be held only in 833 seats of Gram Panchayats, 82 seats of Panchayat Samiti and 79 seats of Zilla Parishad bodies as the others went uncontested.
As per latest reports, 76.63 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the seats that underwent polling.
“Communist party supporters were barred from voting in many places and polling booths were captured in many booths of South Tripura and Gomati districts. Polling agents were not allowed to join their duty stations and the polls were vitiated in a large way,” Tripura Left Front convener Bijan Dhar told reporters.