New Delhi [India] : Votes are being counted for elections to several civic bodies including Agartala Municipal Corporation, or AMC, in Tripura today. The elections were held amid fierce political fight between the state’s ruling BJP and the Trinamool Congress. The BJP is leading or has already won in all the seats where counting has completed, sources have said. This is the first civic election that the BJP contested after coming to power in Tripura in 2018. A total of 334 seats are available in the urban local bodies, including AMC with 51 wards, 13 municipal councils, and six nagar panchayats. The BJP, under Chief Minister Biplab Deb, has fielded candidates in all the seats and has already won 112 out of the 334 seats uncontested in AMC and 19 urban local bodies. In the remaining 222 seats, some 785 candidates are in contest after 36 withdrew their nominations. The election was fought mainly between the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M). The Trinamool Congress has demanded that the elections should be declared invalid, alleging they were “heavily rigged and reduced to a farce” by the ruling BJP. The CPI(M) has also demanded the same in five wards of AMC. BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya has said the party has asked its workers to maintain discipline. “Party karyakartas were asked to follow the organisational tradition after the announcement of the results,” Mr Bhattacharya said in a statement. There is heavy security deployment across the state. Thousands of personnel from the Tripura State Rifles and central paramilitary forces have been deployed in sensitive areas where the counting centres are located.There have been reports of a series of violent incidents in Tripura as the Trinamool Congress is trying to gain foothold in the state ahead of the 2023 assembly elections. Trinamool Congress leader Sayoni Ghosh, who was campaigning in Tripura, was arrested and accused of attempt to murder on November 22. She was released on bail a day later. On voting day earlier this week, the opposition parties alleged BJP workers went around on motorcycles and intimidated their candidates. The CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress also alleged not all voters were allowed to enter polling booths.
