Multi-cornered contest in Tripura East LS seat going to polls on Friday

A multi-cornered contest will be witnessed in the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, which goes to the polls in the second phase of the 7-phase parliamentary elections on Friday.

All arrangements have been made for Friday’s polling for the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat where nine candidates are in the fray, a senior election official said.

He said that around a 14-lakh electorate, including 6.93 lakh female voters, are eligible to cast their votes in 1664 polling stations in different districts.

Of the 1664 polling stations, 13 would be model polling stations with all basic facilities for the voters and 12 would be all women managed polling stations.

According to election officials, a large contingent of Central Armed Police Force and state forces, including the Tripura State Rifles have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident in the elections to the tribal reserved parliamentary constituency.

Though there are nine candidates, including two women, contesting the Lok Sabha seat, the main electoral battle is expected to be fought between the ruling BJP and the opposition CPI-M.

The BJP has fielded Kriti Devi Debbarman, elder sister of Tipra Motha Party chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, against the CPI-M’s Rajendra Reang, a former MLA.

Reang is the consensus nominee of the opposition INDIA bloc, comprising the Congress, Left and other parties.

In the last parliamentary elections in 2019, the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat was owned by the BJP’s Rebati Tripura but this time the saffron party has dropped him.

Security has been tightened along the India-Bangladesh border and a strict vigil is being maintained in all the bordering villages to avoid any cross border incident and unauthorized movement.