Over 81 percent of the around 55,000 electorate on Sunday cast their votes in the bypolls to panchayati raj institutions (PRI) in 11 blocks in Tripura, an official said.
The Tripura State Election Commission (SEC) and police officials said that except for some minor squabbles in northern parts of the state, no untoward incident was reported from the 11 blocks.
The by-elections to 3,386 seats — 3,207 gram panchayat seats, 161 panchayat samiti seats and 18 zilla parishad seats — were scheduled for Sunday, but polling was necessitated only for 11 blocks because most of the seats were filled with candidates elected unopposed.
These seats fell vacant after large-scale resignations of elected representatives of the Left and other parties after the BJP-led coalition came to power in Tripura in March. Some of the three-tier panchayat seats were lying vacant, also due to death of PRI representatives.