Tripura Election: Over 80% Voter Turnout Recorded Amid Sporadic Violence, Results On March 2

Tripura Election 2023: The voting process was mostly peaceful except sporadic violence in a few areas that saw three Left workers, including a CPI(M) leader, being injured.

Tripura Election 2023: Tripura, which saw a three-cornered fight between ruling BJP, Left-Congress combine and regional party Tipra Motha, recorded over 80 per cent voter turnout on Thursday amid sporadic incidents of violence. Results will be declared on March 2 along with the northeastern states of Nagaland and Meghalaya. In the 2018 Assembly election, the overall turnout was 79 per cent.

Families from the Bru community, who moved from Mizoram to Tripura two decades ago, voted in the present Assembly elections for the first time. The migrants turned out in large numbers at the Haduklaupara voting station in Tripura's Dhalai district's 47 Ambassa Assembly Constituency. 

Reports of minor violence in Tripura emerged a few hours into the voting process. At least three people, including a CPI(M) leader and two polling agents of the Left party, were injured in separate incidents of violence.

A CPI(M) committee secretary was injured after being attacked by unidentified people in Boxanagar area in Sepahijala district.

Two CPI(M) polling agents were also thrashed in Kakraban assembly constituency in Gomati district. A vehicle belonging to the polling agent of CPI(M) candidate Pabitra Kar was also ransacked at Khayerpur in West Tripura district, PTI quoted a police officer as saying.

Speaking about the violence, Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Manik Sarkar stated, "Miscreants on behalf of BJP are causing trouble and stopping people from casting their votes."

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gitte Kirankumar Dinakarrao said EVM malfunctioning was reported in 40-45 places but all the machines were replaced. "There has been no report of booth jam or capturing so far," he told reporters.

The BJP will hope to win Tripura for the second consecutive time even though it faces a stiff challenge from the CPI(M)-Congress combine and new entrant Tipra Motha, headed by former royal family's scion Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma. 

In the 2018 Assembly election, BJP, which never won a seat in Tripura, ended the 27-year rule of CPI(M) and formed the government by bagging 36 seats in the 60-member Assembly. While BJP received just 1.54 per cent of votes in 2013, the vote share jumped to over 43 per cent in 2018 -- a result credited mainly to the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tribal voters are the deciding factor in one-third seats (20) of the assembly. In 2018, BJP had won 10 of these 20 seats.