By our correspondent
Agartala, April 10, 2019: The first phase Lok Sabha polls will start from tomorrow. Out of the two LS seat, the West Tripura parliamentary seat is set to go to polls on Thursday while elections will be held for East LS seat on April 18 next.
BJP nominee Pratima Bhowmik, Congress contestant Subal Bhowmik, CPM aspirant Sankar Prasad Datta and IPFT’s Brisaketu Debbarma are among those who have thrown their hats in the ring. Over 13 lakh voters are eligible to cast their vote.
Speaking about poll preparations Returning Officer and DM (West) Dr. Sandeep N. Mahatme told the reporters today, “The polling will commence at 7 am and continue till 5 pm. The polling and security personnel already reached the respective booths.”
He said, “A three-layer security arrangement has been done by the Election Commission for smooth conduct of the polling. Besides, real-time monitoring of the voting will be done through webcasting.”
“In West Tripura constituency, there are as many as 1679 polling stations – 119 critical, 180 vulnerable and 1280 normal.
SP West Ajit Pratap Singh was present in the press conference. He elaborated the security measures taken for a free, fair and peaceful polling.
According to the SP West over 300 preventive arrests were made since announcement of the Lok Sabha polls.
Both the Returning Officer and the SP West have appealed the voters to exercise their franchise without any fear.
Meanwhile, there are 13,47,381 electors – 6,82,044 male, 6,65,327 female and 10 third gender – are there in the West Tripura constituency. Altogether, 13 candidates from different political parties are in fray.