The Left Front in Tripura will boycott the counting of by-polls in the Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly constituencies. The decision was conveyed to the media on Wednesday.
Notably, counting votes for the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly constituencies will start at 8 am on September 8. By-polls in these constituencies were held on September 5.
As per the Election Office, votes will be counted at two counting centers in Sonamura Girls’ School in Sonamura.
Each counting center will have 10 tables. Strict three-tier security measures will be implemented at the counting center for smooth counting of votes.
Citing inaction by the Election Commission on the CPIM party’s demand of re-polling in both constituencies, Convener of the Tripura Left Front Committee, Narayan Kar issued an official statement revealing the party’s decision to stay away from the counting of votes.
Kar mentioned the Election Commission didn’t take any action regarding the complaints of rigging of votes, even after 24 hours of the by-election.
“Under these circumstances, it is amply clear that the motive of the Election Commission. In this situation what is the point of thinking of going of the counting of votes. Therefore, we have decided to boycott the counting of rigged voting on September 8, 2023,” the Left Front stated.
Soon after the voting was completed, the Left Front leaders held a press conference on Tuesday alleging that the by-polls to 20-Boxanagar and 23-Dhanpur assembly seats in Tripura were completely rigged and ‘made a farce’. The leaders also informed the media that party leaders raised the demand with the Election Commission for re-polls in the entire constituencies of Boxanagar and Dhanpur.
On the day of the Poll, there was no major incident of violence or booth capturing. Even as a few isolated incidents took place, the situation was brought under control by the security personnel. One crucial thing observed during the polling was that CPIM polling agents were not spotted in most of the polling booths.
According to local sources, when the absence of the CPIM agents was brought to the notice of the District Magistrate of Sepahijala District, Dr Vishal Kumar, he promptly replied administration offered the required help to all the agents – however, no one neither sought help from the administration nor reported any kind of intimidation.
It is obvious that CPIM leaders failed to motivate many of its agents to come to the polling booths, opined locals of Dhanpur.
Meantime, political analysts opined the decision to boycott the counting would further weaken the party prior to the Lok Sabha polls and may have a detrimental effect on the party’s supporters.