VOTING TODAY IN TRIPURA SEAT, CPI(M) PULLS OUT CANDIDATE

Voting in Tripura’s Charilam constituency, which was deferred following the death of Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma on February 11, will be conducted on Monday.

The party later fielded Palash Debbarma but withdrew the candidate, alleging post-poll violence by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), which swept the polls in 59 of the total 60 seats on February 18.

The BJP-IPFT combine secured 43 seats and ousted the Left Front from power in the state. The CPI(M) won 16 seats.

Jishnu Dev Varma, the newly elected deputy chief minister, is the BJP candidate for Charilam. He is up against the Arjun Debbarma of the Congress, Uma Shankar Debbarma of the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT), and independent candidate Jyoti Lal Debbarma.

More than 35,000 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the constituency. The counting of votes will be on March 15.

The CPI(M) had earlier approached the Election Commission (EC) to defer the poll until peace has been restored.

“Our party candidate was forced to seek shelter outside the constituency due to the post-poll violence. Since the EC didn’t pay any heed to our request, we decided not to contest the election,” said CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar.

The leader said that more than 58 houses of his party’s supporters and workers were ransacked and looted while 19 of the supporters were injured in the violence unleashed by BJP in Charilam.

AGARTALA: Our candidate was forced to seek shelter outside the constituency due to postpoll violence by the BJP. EC didn’t pay any heed to our request