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.
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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”.
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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.