The North Eastern state of Tripura on Thursday went for polls to elect representatives for the 60-member state legislative assembly. As per preliminary reports, the state witnessed more than 85 per cent of polling till 4 pm (the stipulated deadline for polling to end), however, till the filing of this report, polling was continuing at many polling booths due to malfunctioning of electronic voting machines earlier in the day and delays caused due to slow functioning of polling officials.There had been no untoward incident during polling hours and the polling was by and large peaceful. People were seen queuing up at polling booths from 7 in the morning, with turnout swelling around noon.
Though political pundits predict a clean sweep by the Left Front, the emergence of Congress’ vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the scenario heated up the poll atmosphere, giving it a semblance of a two-way fight. If ‘development’ is the poll mantra for the Left Front, it’s ‘parivartan’ that Congress party is harping on. Rahul Gandhi had a whirlwind tour across the state campaigning for the party and asking the voters to oust the left from power. Anti-incumbency is what the Congress is actually banking on, besides few tribal votes. However,
Manik Sarkar, the incumbent chief minister, is confident of a comfortable win (it would be his fourth win on the trot) as he said “people are wise enough, they will vote for development.”
In the last election in 2008, the Left won 49 seats (CPI(M):46, CPI:1, RSP:2), the Congress won 10 seats, and state-level party INPT won 1 seat. This time, the CPI(M) has contested 56 seats, Congress 48 seats, INPT 11 seats, RSP two seats, and one seat each by CPI and Forward Block.
Over 23 lakh voters, out of which half are women, cast their franchise on Thursday to decide the electoral fate of 249 candidates. If Left Front makes it to Agartala this time again, it would be their seventh win in the state, and probably a sort of consolation for the Left across India.
