Tripura TTAADC Polls: 9.61 Lakh Voters to Vote Across 587 Village Committees Today

CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA: Over 9,61,977 voters will cast their votes on Monday to elect 4,597 members of the 587 Village Committees in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). The State Election Commission said all polling personnel had already reached their designated booths and that the law-and-order situation was normal for holding a free and fair election. Of the 4,597 seats in 587 Village Committees in the Sixth Schedule area, voting will take place in 2,950 seats, as 1,644 seats have already been won by Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and BJP candidates unopposed. As many as 8,176 candidates from all the major political parties - TMP, BJP, CPI(M), Congress and Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) - are in the fray.

The election is considered crucial ahead of the State Assembly election scheduled for 2028, as the TTAADC covers more than two-thirds of the State's area and the 20 tribal-reserve seats in the State Assembly fall mostly in this area.

The BJP has officially formed an alliance with two regional parties, the TIPRA Motha and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), but this has hardly been reflected on the ground, as, barring a few seats, these parties are contesting against each other.

On the Opposition side, the CPI(M) has emerged as the main force, as it is contesting nearly 2,500 seats, while the Congress is contesting only a few hundred. Two top CPI(M) leaders, former Chief Minister Manik Saha and party secretary Jiten Choudhury, actively participated in the campaign, while none of the top leaders of the BJP, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha or State president Abhishek Debroy, were seen campaigning. TIPRA Motha supremo Pradyot Bikram Kishor Debbarma was also absent, reportedly due to illness.

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