20K central and state forces personnel to manage elections in Tripura

Agartala: More than 20,000 Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and state force personnel are being deployed in Tripura for the Lok Sabha elections to two seats and the bypoll in one Assembly constituency in the state, officials said here on Tuesday.

A senior police officer said that with the intervention of the Election Commission (EC), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has already sent 70 companies (6,300 personnel) of CAPF comprising the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which have already been deployed in all the eight districts of the state.

“We expect 30 to 35 more companies of CAPF (3,000 personnel) to be deployed by the MHA before the elections scheduled on April 19 and April 26,” the officer told IANS.

He said that besides the CAPF, over 10,000 Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and state police personnel will be deployed for the parliamentary and Assembly by-election in Tripura.

Polling for the West Tripura Parliamentary seat will be held on April 19 in the first of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, while the Tripura East (ST) constituency will go to the polls in the second phase on April 26. The by-election to the Ramnagar Assembly seat will also be held on April 19. The seat fell vacant after the demise of sitting BJP MLA Surajit Datta on December 28 last year.

Statutory notifications for the first phase of elections will be issued on Wednesday.

The opposition CPI-M has nominated former MLA Rajendra Reang for the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, reserved for tribals, while state Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha will contest the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.

As partners of the INDIA bloc, the Left parties and the Congress will contest the Parliamentary elections together in Tripura against the ruling BJP.

Former CPI-M MLA Ratan Das, who is also the Secretary of the CPI-M West District committee, has been fielded for the Ramnagar Assembly seat.

The ruling BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Tripura for the first time in 2019, with Union Minister of State Pratima Bhoumik (Tripura West) and teacher-turned-politician Rebati Tripura (Tripura East) emerging triumphant.

However, both Bhoumik and Tripura were dropped this time, as the BJP opted for Kriti Singh Debbarma and former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for the Tripura East and Tripura West seats, respectively.

Former Congress supporter and a resident of Chhattisgarh, Debbarma, a member of the erstwhile royal dynasty, is the elder sister of Tipra Motha Party (TMP) supremo and royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman. (IANS)

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