Team News Riveting
Agartala, February 16
Over 81 per cent voters exercised their franchise on Thursday as Tripura inched towards yet another high turnout Assembly election.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer, 81.10 per cent of voters have cast their votes till 4 pm. The polling for the 60-member Tripura State Assembly started at 7 am and continued till 4 pm. Officials said voting was likely to continue till late in the evening as massive queues were still visible outside the polling stations at 6pm.
No major untoward incident was reported as the polls were by and large reported to be peaceful across the state. Voters lined up in large numbers since the wee hours on Thursday to participate in the festival of democracy.
Tight security arrangements across all the 3,337 polling stations in Tripura were made to maintain the law and order.
The assembly elections of 2023 assume significance as for the first time the Northeastern state is witnessing a triangular contest between CPIM-Cong combine, ruling BJP and the regional TIPRA, a party often described as the “kingmaker” in the context of these polls. Besides, parties like Trinamool Congress, Amra Bangali and some marginal players are also in the fray, but their presence might not make any impact on the polls.
As many as 259 candidates from different political parties, including 58 independent candidates, are in the contest.
