By Firstdespatch Desk Sep 04, 2023
Agartala, Sep 04 (FD) With just one night to go between the crucial by-polls between unclear friends and foes at Tripura’s Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly constituency which was the home turf of former Chief Minister Dr. Manik Sarkar for four terms and union minister of state Pratima Bhoumik, tight security has been mulled in and around the Sepahijala district, where both assembly segment are situated.
Sepahijala district, which houses a population of around 5.42 lakh people in an area of 1043.04 sq. km, is located just beside the Indo-Bangla international border and several parts ofthe two by-poll bound constituencies have bordering villages. As many as 93,234 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the polls—43,087 in Boxanagar and 50,147 in Dhanpur from 7 AM tomorrow. The electorate includes 160 service voters and 1,217 veterans aged above 80, who can vote from their homes by using postal ballots.
There will be 51 polling stations in Boxanagar and 59 in Dhanpur.While the model code of conduct came into effect with the commission’s announcement of the by-polls on Tuesday, the nomination process started Thursday. Candidates filed their nomination papers till August 17, the submitted nomination papers were scrutinized on August 18 and last date of withdrawal expired on August 21, by when it wasclear that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) were the only major political parties in the fray.The by-polls, while not having the potential to change the government in any way, is still considered crucialas the ruling BJP has 31 MLAs in the 60-member assembly, just one mark above the magic figure. Overall, voters at Dhanpur and Boxanagar were found reluctant to take challenges and said since the government would not change, most of them would cast mandate in favour of the in cumbent when this correspondent tried to visit different parts of the by-poll bound seats.
However, what’s most bewilderingab out this by-election is that neither the contestants, not the electors are exactly clear which side the different political parties are standing barringthe BJP and CPIM which are declared opponents in the fray. The Congress party, despite having earlier declared that it would oppose BJP but not campaign in favour of CPIM since the latter went ahead of itself and announced its own candidates amidst discussions with Congress and the prime opposition TIPRA Motha party for deciding a way to put up a joint fight against the BJP, was later seen on the ground attacking BJP in different grounds including purported communal polarization, public policy failures, political violence etc. Congress appealedits voters to cast mandate in favour of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance against BJP, inwhich CPIM is also a member, effectively asking electors to support the Communist party.Crucially, a group of Congress supporters led by former minister and AICC member Billal Miah jumped boat tothe BJP saying Congress had “forgotten about Muslims”. While the latter said Billal was “expelled” from the party due to anti-party activities and down played his comments as “borne out of greed”, the grand old party iscertainly in a tight spot since it was not seen sharing spot in major political campaign in the run up to the by-election, sending clear vibes of tension between the partners. The TIPRA Motha party, on the other hand, is in talks with the BJP-led central government over its demand of Greater Tipraland – a proposed separate state or autonomous state insideTripura for tribals of the state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah invited theparty’s founder and royal scion-turned-politician Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma to “discuss demands and rights of tribals” just days before the by-poll is scheduled.
However, Motha on its side has made it clear it would not support BJP in the by-polls, neither would it support the CPIM. Senior TIPRA Motha leader and Tripura opposition leader Animesh Debbarma recently appealed voters of his party to follow “conscience vote” while making it clear his party does not want to pick sides in this by-election.This is not with standing the fact that Motha MLAs and senior leaders were found campaigning in favour of CPIM on ground in different parts of Dhanpur and Boxanagar.
The CPIM, on its side is happy with the fact that Congress campaigned in favour of I.N.D.I.A. alliance and that Motha didn’t support BJP and that it didn’t put up candidates, ensuring a one-on-one fight of the Communist party against BJP. In response to Motha’s claims that it would no support CPIM, the party’s state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury saidthose were “strategic statement” of the tribal party and claimed Motha leadersand activists are with CPIM on the ground."Whatever they said, it may be their strategic statement. But in ground reality, their activists are visiting voters' houses with our party activists.They ( TIPRA Motha) told the voters to exercise their franchise freely. We also want people to vote freely. We just want no division of opposition votes like the last Assembly polls”, he said. Political experts feel this mixand match of contradicting stand points tend to confuse electors as friends and foes are not clear in the by-poll, even 24 hours before the EVMs go green. Shortly after the Election Commission announced two Assembly by-polls in Tripura earlier in August this year, Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agrawal said the law and order situation was assessedwith help from police, the Border Security Force and other agencies to identify sensitive areas and that central forces will be deployed at polling booths.Out of 59 polling stations at Dhanpur, 9 were identified as ‘critical’ and 19 others were marked ‘vulnerable’based on previous years records while 9 polling stations were marked ‘critical’and 15 others ‘vulnerable’ at Boxanagar constituency which has 51 polling stations scheduled to undergo polling tomorrow.
Though vulnerability details ofthe polling stations were not given out, the CEO had informed that Prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were issued in some areas and steps were taken to prevent infiltration and unauthorized entry of people from Bangladesh, with which the state shares an 856-km border on threesides.Meanwhile, the Commission has deployed Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel on ground for area domination and security management. Central forces would be deployed to standguard at all polling stations during the by-poll process as well.
As per latest information, 15 companies of CAPF personnel were deployed for the by-poll process and regular area domination and patrolling is going on to preventun toward incidents and instill confidence among voters.District Electoral Officer and Sepahijala District Magistrate Bishal Kumar today told media that the entire Sonamua sub-division which accommodates the two by-poll bound assembly segments was declared as a “high security area” and all internal roads as well as entry and exit points were being monitored to make sure nobody could illegally influence the voters. FD JK