The counting of votes for the by-elections to Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma, and Jubarajnagar Assembly constituencies in three districts — West Tripura, North Tripura, and Dhalai begins today at 8 am on Sunday.
Officials said that the Election Commission has taken several measures, including the promulgation of the prohibitory orders 144 CrPc within a 200-meter radius of the counting centers, and the deployment of the central forces in and around the counting venues.
Over 78.58 percent of the 1,89,032-strong electorate cast their votes on Thursday in the by-elections to four Assembly constituencies in Tripura, amid some stray incidents of violence.
The outcome of the by-election would decide the political fortune of 22 candidates, including seven women.
The by-election is being termed by the political pundits as “semi-final” before the 60-member Assembly’s general elections, which are just eight months away.
The focus of the by-elections is mainly on the Town Bordowali Assembly constituency, where 69-year-old Congress-turned-BJP leader and Chief Minister Manik Saha is contesting against five other candidates.
Tripura Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manik Saha are among the candidates at Town Bardowali. He needs to win the election to continue as the chief minister.
Saha, BJP’s state president and a Rajya Sabha member who assumed office on May 15, a day after Biplab Kumar Deb resigned from the post of the chief minister, is contesting the elections for the first time.
To fulfill the constitutional bindings, he has to become a member of the Assembly within six months.
The by-polls were necessitated after the resignation of three BJP MLAs including former Minister Sudip Roy Barman following the open revolt against Deb and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath.
