BJP likely to win 68 pc gram panchayat seats unopposed in Tripura: Poll officials

Agartala, July 20 (IANS) The ruling BJP is likely to win 68.27 per cent of gram panchayat seats unopposed in Tripura, where three-tier panchayats elections are scheduled on August 8, officials said on Saturday. 

A senior official of the State Election Commission (SEC) said that in 4,349 (68.27 per cent) of the total 6,370 gram panchayat seats, only BJP candidates have filed nomination while in 190 of the 423 seats in panchayat samitis and two of the 116 seats in zilla parishads, only ruling party nominees have submitted their candidatures.

The official said there are 6,370 seats in 606 gram panchayats, 423 seats in 35 panchayat samitis, and 116 seats in eight zilla parishads, with 33 per cent reservation for women.

The last date for withdrawing nominations is July 22, when the exact number of candidates winning unopposed would be announced.

According to officials, 8,998 candidates from different political parties have filed nominations for the gram panchayats, 783 for panchayat samitis, and 384 for the zilla parishads.

Meanwhile, the Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front have alleged that the BJP workers and goons backed by them did not allow their candidates to submit their nomination papers in hundreds of seats.

The leaders of the opposition parties claimed that despite a series of requests to the SEC and the police, the BJP members and goons have unleashed a reign of terror across the state to prevent the opposition candidates from submitting their candidatures.

They also urged the SEC to allow their candidates to submit their nominations through e-mail, but the poll panel rejected the appeal citing lack of legal provisions in this regard.

Congress Working Committee member and former minister Sudip Roy Barman claimed that 3,383 party candidates went to submit their nomination papers in the concerned offices, but due to the violent obstruction by the ruling party cadres, they could not submit the same.  

Tripura CPI(M) leader and Left Front convener Narayan Kar said the party had approached the high court after the SEC 'failed' to conduct the panchayat elections freely and fairly even as the police remained silent despite widespread violence across the state.

Kar also claimed that CPI-M candidate Badal Shil for the South Tripura zilla parishad was critically injured in an attack by BJP-backed goons on July 12 at Rajnagar in South Tripura district. A day later, he succumbed to his injuries.

The Congress and the CPI-M leaders have separately claimed that around a hundred candidates, party workers, and supporters were injured after being attacked by the ruling party members and goons backed by them since the election schedule was announced on July 10.

The BJP, however, has rejected the accusations, saying the Congress and the Left parties could not find enough candidates to field for the rural body polls.

On July 18, a division bench of the High Court of Tripura comprising Justice Arindam Lodh and Justice Sabyasachi Datta Purkayastha asked the SEC to hold the panchayat elections freely, fairly, and transparently.

The court passed the order after the Congress and the CPI-M filed separate petitions seeking its directions to the SEC to conduct the elections freely following violent incidents across the state witnessed when the candidates of the opposition parties tried to submit their nominations.