Agartala:Tripura State Election Commission (TSEC) has decided to hold re-poll in two seats of village panchayat by-election held on September 30 last where ruling BJP has won 113 seats of 130 in village panchayat, five of seven seats in panchayat samity and all 18 seats of Zilla Parisad.
However, ruling partner won nine seats and opposition CPI (M) and Congress won four seats each in the village panchayat and CPI (M) also won two seats of panchayat samity in North Tripura.
By-election was scheduled for 3386 seats of village panchayat, 161 panchayat samity and 18 Zilla Parisad seats. But BJP won 3207 village panchayat, 154 panchayat samity and all seats of Zilla Parisad without contest.
TSEC said following the report of returning officer re-poll is ordered tomorrow to two village panchayat seats where allegation of booth capturing was reported and during investigation it was found true. The commission made all arrangements for holding re-polls in the seats and final result of the election will be announced after counting of votes of re-polling.
Though by-election to three-tire panchayat was by and large peaceful, opposition CPI (M) and Congress, as well as the ruling party's partner in the government tribal based Indigenous Peoples Front of Twipra (IPFT), accused BJP of perpetrating violence on them to prevent their participation in the by-election.
On contrary, BJP stated that CPI (M) and Congress took the plea of violence to save the pace because they don't remain any support in the villages. In 97 percent of the seats opposition could able to find persons to stand for election and to malign the government those elements created trouble in different areas but police counter
them strongly.
In case of IPFT, there was huge exodus from CPI (M) in the party who were mobilized by the opposition to create trouble to fragment alliance between BJP and IPFT. Repeated times, top leaders of IPFT warned their workers at grassroot level to be peaceful and don't step into the trap of opposition but in some cases they had engaged in scuffle with BJP workers, BJP leaders claimed.
Moreover, BJP and IPFT were agreed to share the seats in the by-election but ultimately it was not happened due to some practical reasons. But it doesn't mean that BJP prevented them to fight in the election. The turncoat BJP and IPFT workers were instigated by the opposition in a very calculative manner to create tension and to some extent they were successful. Later, everything was exposed to the top leaders of both the parties, BJP stated.(UNI)
