By Firstdespatch Desk Sep 05, 2023
Agartala, Sep 05 (FD) By-elections to two assembly constituencies - Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura’s Sepahijala district witnessed heavy turnout of voters, passed off peacefully barring a few stray incidents of violence with more than 81% percent of electorates casting their votes.
A statement issued by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said over 89.2% voters cast their votes at Boxanagar constituency and over 83.92 % voters at Dhanpur exercised their franchise in the by-elections.
Polling began at 7 a.m. in 59 booths in Dhanpur assembly constituency and 51 in Boxanagar, which was scheduled to continue till 4 p m, but many voters were still standing in queue.
District Magistrate of Sepahijala, Vishal Kumar, who is Returning Officer of the two electoral constituencies, said that polling percentage might shoot up as the voters were still casting their votes.
By-elections for the constituencies were necessitated as the Union Minister of State for Women Empowerment and Social Justice, Pratima Bhowmick, who successfully contested assembly elections in February this year from Dhanpur constituency did not take oath as an MLA and also due to demise of CPI-M MLA from Boxanagar constituency, Shamsul Haque.
Asst. Inspector General of police, Jyotisman Das Chowdhury said six persons were injured at Mohanbhog village in Dhanpur constituency by the villagers and set five motorcycles on fire on the plea that they were outsiders.
On receipt of the information, police rushed to the spot and rescued and admitted them to the local Melaghar hospital.
He said, no other incident of violence was reported from any part of the constituencies.
In Boxanagar constituency, BJP’s Tafajjal Hussain, was pitted against CPI (M) nominee Mizan Hussain, who is the son of late Shamsul Haque.
In Dhanpur constituency BJP’s Bindu Debnath is in a direct fight against CPI-M’s Kaushik Debnath.
There are 50,346 eligible voters in Dhanpur constituency and 43,087 voters in Boxanagar constituency, which is dominated by minority voters (66%).
Tripura Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha appealed to the voters to exercise their franchise peacefully. “Polling began in two assembly constituencies peacefully. I appeal to the voters to come out and exercise their democratic rights. I also urge the people to maintain peace during the polling and repeat the precedent of peaceful voting like of last assembly elections,” Saha said in a Facebook post.
“Adequate security arrangements had been made for a peaceful election and the Indo-Bangla international border was completely sealed as the both constituencies are near the fringe. 15 companies of Central paramilitary forces (CPMF) were deployed along with the state paramilitary, Tripura State Rifles (TSR). At least half section of the paramilitary forces would be deployed in each polling stations”, District Magistrate Sepahijala Dr. Vishal Kumar told reporters.
He said about 1700 voters, who live on the other side of the fence, were issued special ID cards to enable them to cast their votes.
Over 95,000 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 110 polling stations in two constituencies.
CPI (M) had managed to retain the Boxanagar seat by a margin of 4,849 votes in the last elections held early this year. Of the total 43,087 voters, electors from the minority community count for around 66 per cent, which is seen as a major vote bank for the CPI (M). FD JK