AGARTALA: Senior Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman, on Thursday, alleged that Director General of Tripura Police had been missing from the state at a time when violent incidents marred the day of by-elections in four assembly constituencies: Agartala, Bardowali, Surma and Jubarajnagar.  

With now major flare up, incidents of low intensity violence, intimidation and threatening had been reported in the constituencies.  

The police took a series of steps to restore the situation and build confidence among the voters to participate in the process of elections.  

According to Barman, flying squads backed by the BJP were being alerted by “people in the system” and thus they succeed in evading punitive measures from the police.  

He said, “Democracy is in peril here in Tripura. The way intruders from other parts of the state tried to vitiate the poll process indicates that no democracy exists in the state.”  

Also read: Violence mars Tripura bypolls, police constable injured in attack

As per the reports of Election Commission, total voters’ turnout stood at 76.62 percent till 5 pm.  

In several polling stations, EVMs went defunct and later the technical faults were fixed. 

However, voters have said that the adequate security measures have been put in place inside the polling stations and webcasting of the election process has been done in all the polling stations across the poll-bound constituencies.  

No incident of large-scale rigging, booth jamming or poll related violence room place so far till filling the report.  

Reacting to the allegations of Barman, Tripura deputy CM Jishnu Dev Varma said, “The opposition needs an excuse to put pressure on the ruling party. Otherwise, how can they save their face after results. The way people have turned up and their body language speaks that elections were peaceful.”  

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Meanwhile, a police official identified as Samir Saha was attacked by miscreants while he was on his way to cast his vote.  

One miscreant trying to create nuisance in front of the polling station by attacking and stabbin him with a sharp knife.  

The police official was immediately shifted to hospital for treatment.  

Meanwhile, the Tripura unit of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has also alleged that the poll process was full of irregularities and outsiders had threatened general voters.  

However, reports are completely different in Jubarajnagar and Surma where no incident of violence was reported.