Agartala, Apr 9 (PTI) Over 15 per cent of the total electorate turned out to vote in the byelection to Tripura’s Dharmanagar Assembly constituency in the first two hours of polling on Thursday.
A little over 46,000 voters of the constituency in North Tripura will decide the fate of six candidates in the bypoll that has been necessitated by the death of Assembly Speaker and local MLA Biswa Bandhu Sen of the BJP last December.
An official said 15.63 per cent voting was recorded till 9 am. The polling began at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm.
Voting will hopefully gain momentum as the day progresses, District Election Officer, North Tripura, Chandni Chandran, told PTI.
Chief Minister Manik Saha urged people to participate in the byelections in record numbers. “The festival of democracy will be colourful with spontaneous participation of youth and women voters,” he wrote on Facebook.
BJP candidate Jahar Chakraborty said the polling has been peaceful so far.
“In many polling booths, the opposition parties — CPI (M) and Congress — could not put up their agents due to their poor organisational strength. We hope to win the seat with a record margin this time,” he said.
Congress nominee Chayan Bhattacharjee claimed that polling agents of her party were initially not allowed to enter two booths.
“However, the intervention of poll officials enabled them to enter the booths. The overall situation in Dharmangar is peaceful,” he said. PTI PS NSD
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