Tripura bye-poll results to be announced today

AGARTALA: The results of the bye-poll held on June 23 in the four politically-crucial Assembly constituencies in Tripura will be announced on Sunday, officials said.

The counting of votes for the by-elections to Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma, and Jubarajnagar Assembly constituencies in three districts -- West Tripura, North Tripura and Dhalai -- would begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

The Election Commission has taken several measures including the promulgation of the prohibitory orders 144 CrPC within a 200-metre radius of the counting centres, and the deployment of the central forces in and around the counting venues.

Over 78.58 per cent of the 1,89,032-strong electorate cast their votes on Thursday in the by-elections to four Assembly constituencies in Tripura amid some stray incidents of violence.

The outcome of the by-election would decide the political fortune of 22 candidates including seven women.

The bye-election is being termed by the political pundits as "semi-final" before the 60-member Assembly's general elections, which are just eight months away.

The focus of the by-elections is mainly on the Town Bordowali Assembly constituency where 69-year-old Congress-turned-BJP leader and Chief Minister Manik Saha is contesting against five other candidates.

Saha, BJP's state president and a Rajya Sabha member who assumed office on May 15, a day after Biplab Kumar Deb resigns from the post of the chief minister, is contesting the elections for the first time.

To fulfil the constitutional bindings, he has to become a member of the Assembly within six months.

The bye-polls were necessitated after the resignation of three BJP MLAs including former Minister Sudip Roy Barman following the open revolt against Deb and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath. (IANS)

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