Tripura gears up for TTAADC village committee polls, security reviewed

Tripura stepped up preparations for the upcoming Village Committee elections under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), with senior officials reviewing the security situation and poll preparedness on September 14.

State Election Commissioner PK Chakraborty and Tripura Police Director General-in-charge GS Rao chaired a video conference with district election officers, district magistrates and collectors, and superintendents of police to assess arrangements for the elections.

The meeting focused on the prevailing law and order situation, security deployment, coordination between departments and other measures required to ensure peaceful and orderly polling.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Ipper Manchak and Secretary of the State Election Commission Anurag Sen also attended the meeting.

The State Election Commission said necessary directions were issued to the concerned authorities to ensure effective coordination, adequate security arrangements and the smooth conduct of the polling process.

The Village Committee elections are scheduled for September 28, while counting of votes will take place on October 5.

Polling will be held across 587 Village Committees covering 2,634 constituencies and 4,597 seats.

A total of 9,820 candidates are currently in the fray for the elections, according to data released by the State Election Commission.

As many as 1,069 candidates withdrew their nominations during the election process. The withdrawals included 105 BJP candidates, 302 CPI(M) candidates, 39 Congress candidates, 12 IPFT candidates and 80 Tipra Motha Party candidates. One CPI candidate also withdrew.

Candidates from other parties and independents accounted for the largest share of withdrawals, with 414 candidates pulling out of the contest.