Tripura by-election, a cashless affair for BJP

From A Correspondent

Agartala, Dec 10 : The by-election for the Barjala assembly constituency was a cashless

affair for the BJP, claimed Biplab Deb, state president of the party. He also placed all necessary documents in support of his claim to the sub-divisiol magistrate who was the returning officer for the election.

‘It was first in the country where an election was conducted in a totally cashless way and it was totally transparent’, he said. The expenditure statement submitted before the state election department the party claimed that they have spent total Rs 8.27 lakhs for the election out of which Rs 5.99 Lakh was spent from the candidate’s own bank account and the rest from the party account.

‘All these payments were made through cheques’, he said. The election was held on October 19 due to the resigtion of the Congress MLA Jiten Sarkar. The ruling CPI(M) own the election and the BJP emerged as the nearest second while both the Trimool Congress and

the Congress lost their deposits. This by-election was a litmus test for both the BJP and the Trimool Congress to prove which one is the main opposition party in the state and the voter’s verdict went in favour of BJP which got more than twelve thousand votes while TMC got only four thousand.

Biplab Deb said the verdict of the Barjala electorate has emboldened the confidence of the BJP workers and they are now confident of winning the 2018 assembly election defeating the ruling Left Front led by CPI(M).