Civic poll starts in Tripura amid tight security

Agartala: Polling for the civic bodies in Tripura started on Wednesday amid tight security.

Right from early morning voters were seen waiting in long queues outside polling centres to cast their vote.

Voting started at 7 am and many voters including women gathered early as they wanted to cast their vote before going to work or house hold chores.

Over 5.24 lakh electors would decide the fate of a record breaking candidates-886 of all major political parties in the upcoming elections to Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) and nineteen Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.

In the civic bodies' elections, there would be as many as 290 wards while total number of contesting candidates stands at 886. Of the total candidates for civic bodies, the number of female stands at 429, which is a record the state's electoral history.

EVM's are being used and to conduct the elections, twenty Returning Officers and 25 Observers have been appointed while altogether 18 counting halls have been established.

Altogether 20,027 voters would decide the fate of 48 candidates in the by-elections to 17 seats in the Panchayat. The ruling Left Front has already won 10 seats uncontested after the opposition parties failed to put up candidates.

Of the total polling stations, 378 polling booths have been identified as A while 279 polling booths have been rated as B.

Five armed cops will be engaged to guard A category booth while three armed policemen will be deployed to keep surveillance to each B category booth.

The ruling Left Front and the opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the main contenders.