Tripura bypolls: Voter turnout over 84% in two Assembly segments

The by-polls to two assembly seats of Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura witnessed over 84 per cent voters turn out.

Elections were largely peaceful with no untoward incident. Amid heavy security, polling for the by-elections ended at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. In all, 93,495 voters, including 45, 222 female electorate, are eligible to cast their votes in 110 polling stations to decide the electoral fortune of eight candidates, four each in two seats.

There is a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition CPI-M-led Left Front. The Congress and the Tipra Motha Party (TMP), the other two main opposition parties in the state have not fielded any candidates. Congress leaders campaigned for the Left candidates.


The CPI-M has fielded Mizan Hossain in Boxanagar and Kaushik Chanda in Dhanpur, while the ruling BJP has fielded Taffajal Hossain in Boxanagar and Bindu Debnath in Dhanpur.

CPI-M's Mizan Hossain and BJP's Bindu Debnath are contesting elections for the first time, while Kaushik Chanda and Taffajal Hossain had contested the Assembly polls held in February this year.

In the February 16 Assembly polls, the Left parties and the Congress had contested the elections together with seat-sharing arrangements, while the TMP went alone.

The by-election in the Dhanpur Assembly seat was necessitated after Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik resigned from the Assembly, days after her election from the seat as a BJP nominee.

The Muslim-dominated Boxanagar Assembly seat fell vacant after the death of sitting CPI-M MLA Samsul Haque, who died on July 19 after a cardiac attack.

CPI-M state Secretary Jitendra Choudhury claimed that due to the threats and intimidations of the ruling BJP cadres the party’s polling agents could not attend in more than 50 per cent of the 110 polling stations in the two seats.