By our correspondent
Agartala, May 09, 2019: Left Front Convener of Tripura, Bijan Dhar today informed the media that the Supreme Court had declined to entertain an urgent hearing for the petition filed by CPIM West Tripura constituency Sankar Prasad Datta and directed that the petition would be heard in usual course. However, Left Front will participate in repolls in 168 polling stations in West Tripura LS seat scheduled to be held on May 12, Dhar said.
“The petition which was specially mentioned in the Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected CPIM’s appeal of hearing the petition on priority basis as the re-polls were scheduled on May 12 next and ruled that it would be heard in normal course” Said Bijan Dhar at a media conference this evening.
In the same breathe, he also continued, though the Supreme Court of India has deferred the hearing, the Left Front will fight the elections with its best possible strength.
He added, the Left Front committee has also unanimously decided that it would once again plead the state election machinery—Chief Electoral Officer and Returning Officer of the constituency to ensure that the ‘mismanagement’ that occurred in the first phase of elections should not repeat.
“We are going to meet the CEO and RO with specific demands to protect the rights of electorates. We have observed that MLAs and Ministers of the ruling party were encouraging rigging in various polling booths. We will also urged the CEO to install video recording devices outside of the polling booths” Dhar added.
Speaking to media, CPIM state secretary Goutam Das said, the re-elections are elections of protests and the people of Tripura will avenge what they had faced during the first phase of elections.