On Wednesday, accusing the government of deliberately delaying village committees election under the council, the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council ‘s ruling TIPRA Motha party demonstrated in different parts of the state.
TIPRA Motha leader Suresh Reang accused the government by saying that the government was misusing the State Election Commission (SEC) to delay the elections because they have a fear of defeat, despite a Tripura High Court directive to hold the polls in the November first week.
The elections are already delayed by a year and a half back due to the spreading of coronavirus.
70 Percent of the state’s geographical area is covered by the tribal Council and is distributed across almost all districts. The areas house over 30 per cent of the tribal population, hailing from 19 communities, and are administered through 587 village committees.
After the March 2021 elections were postponed due to Covid, an administrator was appointed to the council under the governor’s supervision.
In August, the secretary of State Election Council P Bhattacharjee issued guidelines and said preparations were underway for the village committee polls. All block development officers were assigned the work to collect copies of the Assembly electoral rolls.
Jagadish Debbarma Council’s chairman said the election delay was hampering the lives of indigenous tribes.
Revision of the electoral rolls for the village committee elections is considered crucial since 7,68,561 voters were registered for the last polls in 2016 whereas 8,65,041 voters were enrolled for the tribal council polls last year.
The revision of electoral rolls carries even more significance because of the 21,000 resettled Bru migrants from Mizoram waiting to be enrolled as voters in the council areas.
