Re-polling at six booths in six Assembly constituencies in Tripura began on Monday morning. There was a 37.07% voter turnout by 11 am.
On Friday, the Election Commission had ordered re-polling at one booth each in the constituencies of Sonamura, Teliamura, Sabroom, Ampinagar, Kadamtala-Kurti and Dhanpur. Dhanpur is Chief Minister Manik Sarkar’s constituency. The results of the Assembly elections will be declared on March 3.
On Saturday, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said he was confident of a Bharatiya Janata Party victory in Tripura.
“The BJP is going to form government in Tripura,” he said. “That is the ground report, and our assessment is that [we will form the government] with absolute majority.”
The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) blamed the state election department for “failing to conduct a proper election and criminal negligence”. Tripura CPI(M) Secretary Bijan Dhar threatened to act against such “negligence” through “street movements”.
He questioned how the poll monitor had ordered re-polling when no political party had asked for it. Dhar also claimed that the Election Commission had ordered re-polling only in constituencies where the CPI (M) was likely to win.
However, Tripura BJP Spokesperson Ashok Sinha welcomed the Election Commission’s decision to hold re-polling, claiming that some electronic voting machines had malfunctioned.