Polls for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which constitutes two third of the state territory, today began amid tight security.
Tribal voters, clad in traditional dress, were seen standing in long and serpentine queues near the booths and tea and snacks vendors have been making brisk business.
Security was beefed up in the entire state and Border Security Force Personnel (BSF) tightened their vigil along the 856 km long border in the state with Bangladesh.
Police said no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state so far.
Inspector General of Police (Law and order), Anurag Dhyankar said 13,000 security personnel were deployed in the polls of which 6,900 were from the Tripura State Rifles (TSR), 4,000 civil police and 21 companies of central paramilitary forces including CRPF and BSF.
All opposition parties - Congress, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura, BJP and Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Trinamool Congress - are contesting the elections on their own.
A total of 177 candidates are in the fray across 28 constituencies of the TTAADC, Election Commissioner for District Council S K Rakesh said.
Of the total polling booths, 79 polling stations have been identified as hyper sensitive and 360 booths as sensitive, he said.
A total of 7,58,554 electors, including 3,75,117 women, are eligible to vote. Of the 30 seats, 28 are filled through direct election and two members nominated by the Governor on the advice of the state government.
For the first time EVMs have been introduced in the tribal council elections.
The TTAADC came into being in January 1982 under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and was given more autonomy under the Sixth Schedule in August 1984 to safeguard political, economic and cultural interests of tribals.
The tribals constitute one third of the state's 37 lakh population and the tribal council covers two-thirds of the state's territory of 10,491.69 sq km.
