Tripura: Row over BJP minister's Rs 2 lakh reward offer for polling stations

Guwahati: With Tripura Minister and BJP leader Ratan Lal Nath announcing Rs 2 lakh reward for the polling stations in five Assembly constituencies which would record the highest percentage of votes in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Opposition CPI-M and the Congress on Tuesday urged the Election Commission to take appropriate action against Tripura Minister.

Opposition leader and CPI-M Tripura state Secretary Jitendra Chaudhury in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (Rajiv Kumar) alleged that the minister's announcement of reward is an “open provocation of false voting”.

State Congress President Asish Kumar Saha in his letter to the CEC urged to take immediate and decisive action to rectify these alarming developments.


“Your swift intervention in addressing these concerns will not only restore confidence in our electoral system but also reaffirm the resilience of our democratic institutions,” Saha told the CEC.

Nath, who is Parliamentary Affairs minister, announced that he would personally reward Rs 2 lakh to the polling stations in five Assembly constituencies which will record the highest percentage of votes in the Lok Sabha elections.

He said the five Assembly constituencies are Agartala, Mohanpur, Amarpur, Teliamura and Khowai.

Agartala and Mohanpur assembly segments fall under the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, where elections were held in the first phase on April 19 and Amarpur, Teliamura and Khowai assembly constituencies come under the Tripura East (ST) parliamentary constituency, where the voting will be held in the second phase on April 26.

On April 19, 81.48 per cent of the 14.63 lakh voters cast their votes in the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.