Tripura hills in election mood as filing of nomitions begin

A CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA, Feb 1: Election tempo is gaining momentum in hilly areas of Tripura as the candidates of all the political parties for the Village Committee election has started filing their nomition since the issuance of notification by the State election commission on January 29.

Filing of nomition for 587 village committees will continue till February 5 and the election is scheduled for February 24. The sources at the State Election Commission said that the filing of nomition papers are going on smoothly and no untoward incident has so far been reported.

Reports coming in from different parts of the State suggest that the ruling CPI (M) is running much ahead of the others as the party workers considered the filing of nomition an occasion to launch their campaign.

Every where they are organizing big and colourful rallies before filing the nomition with an aim to made an initial impact among the voters.

The Indigenous People’s Front of Twipra, considered being the main challenger to the ruling Left Front also not lagging far behind as they are too organising rallies and small meeting besides filing of nomition. Party president rendra Chandra Debbarma said, “The entire organization has been geared up and the workers are busy with filing nomition. Our intention is to file nomition for all the constituencies as we don’t have alliance with any other party. However, filly how many nomitions have been filed will be known only after the last date for filing nomition is over.”

However, the political observers are keenly watching the BJP which gained much ground in the only left ruled State in the country since rendra Modi formed the government at the centre. It generated much interest among the political observers since their candidates captured the second position in many areas in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council election early last year though the party did not have much organizatiol base in Tripura.

The BJP State president Biplab Deb did not denied their organizatiol weaknesses and said their priority is filing nomition in all the constituencies. He said they are considering it as a means to reach in the grass root level. He also accused that the CPI(M) workers are threatening the BJP workers in interior areas of Manu and Chawmanu to prevent them from filing nomition.

The main opposition in the State assembly Congress lost much of its organizatiol base among the tribals of the State over the years. The party’s debacle in the last lok sabha elections added to its woe’s. The TPCC president Birajit Sinha admitted this and said they are trying to put up maximum number of candidates and expecting good result in certain areas. However, he is still doubtful if they will be able to file nomition in all the constituencies.

In many earlier occasion the State witnessed alliances but this time all the political parties are fighting it alone. Even the Indigenous tiolist Party of Tripura, a long time ally of the Congress led by former insurgent leader Bijoy Hrangkhawal, too fighting the election without any alliance. However, there are reports that political parties locally reaching into arrangements and sharing seats among themselves to ensure a good fight against the ruling CPI (M). The 587 Village Committees are considered as counterparts of the panchyats in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. Total 4597 representatives will be elected from 2634 segments as many of these are double member constituencies.