Curtains came down on high-octane campaign for Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls on Sunday evening.
In all, 157 candidates including 38 Independent candidates are in the fray. Elections to 28-seat TTAADC will be held on April 6 and results will be announced on April 8 next. Amidst tight security arrangements, polling will be conducted in 1244 booths and voters will exercise their democratic rights through EVMs.
The State Election Commission (SEC) has already taken necessary steps for a smooth conduct of polls and polling staff along with poll materials will start moving to concerned booths from Monday. The SEC has sought co-operation from all the political parties and other stakeholders.
Total number of voters stands at 8 lakh 65 thousand 41 out of which 4 lakh 36 thousand 548 are male voters and 4 lakh 28 thousand 490 are female voters. Three voters belong to third gender category.
Notably, a total of 8546 voters had already cast their votes through postal ballots.
In this high-stack TTAADC polls, BJP-IPFT alliance and TIPRA held big rallies and road shows while CPM relied on small scale group meetings and rallies. Congress was late in starting its full-fledged campaign.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb who played a pivotal role in ending 25-year long Left regime in the State was engaged in whirlwind campaign. With State-level leaders in charge handling ground level day-to-day campaigning, Deb’s spirited effort helped the BJP-IPFT alliance to emerge as a strong contender for attaining majority in 28-seat ADC.
Main poll plank of BJP-IPFT government is implementation of welfare projects to become Atma-nirbhar.
CPM seemed yet to be woken up from defeats suffered in last Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Veteran leader Jitendra Choudhury was the lone man who was seen in extensive campaigning. Ex-Chief Minister and CPM Politburo leader Manik Sarkar also held couple of public rallies. However, it was obvious that CPM was yet to recover.
CPM tried to explain to people shortcomings of BJP-led State and Central Governments.
TIPRA led by Pradyot Kishore Debbarman emerged as a strong challenger to BJP-IPFT alliance. He held a good number of big rallies and people’s participation was noticeable. Debbarma concentrated on ‘greater Tipraland’ concept only.
With as many as 38 Independent candidates are in the fray, many of them may play a role in determining the emerging poll scene. Whatever be the outcome of the Poll, people of the State will expect that political rivalry will not disturb peaceful situation of the State.
