Claiming the by-elections for Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly constituencies – a total farce and rigged by the ruling party and Election Commission’s inactiveness to deal with the “terror and misdeeds”, the opposition Left Front  would boycott the counting of votes on Friday.

CPI(M) Tripura state Secretary and  MLA Jitendra Chaudhury on Thursday said that the party would boycott the counting of votes in the two Assembly segments on Friday and would not depute any agents in the counting centres.

“Due to the large-scale intimidation and attack of the ruling BJP cadres, the party’s polling agents could not attend in more than 50 percent of the110 polling stations in the two seats during the day of polling on Tuesday.

There was silent rigging in both the constituencies by the BJP workers. The police and election officials overlooked this new style of intimidating the opposition voters and election agents,” Chaudhury told the media.

Several ministers and BJP leaders violating the Election Commission’s norms conducted and supervised the irregularities even though they cannot enter into the areas of the two assembly constituencies as they are not voters or residents of these areas, the Left leader said.

Claiming the by-elections for Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly constituencies – a total farce and rigged by the ruling party, the opposition Left Front after the polls has demanded countermand of entire elections in both the constituencies and arranges a fresh poll with strictest security measures.

They also demanded arrest of Minister Bikash Debbarma and alleged that he physically led the large number of miscreants to terrorization of voters, removal SP Sepahijala, and both the ROs of Boxanagar, and Dhanpur immediately and has also urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) and CEO, Tripura that the  electoral staff may be drafted from outside the poll-bound district.

The voting for the by-polls to the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Sepahijala district was held on Tuesday and 86.56 percent of the 93,495 voters cast their votes. Till the completion of voting process, the 20-Boxanagar seat recorded turnout at 89.2% and 23-Dhanpur assembly constituency recorded turnout of 83.92%, out of total voters of 93,495 in both constituencies.

BJP leaders, however, denied the accusations and claimed that voting took place in both the seats in a festive mood, sans any hassles.

The Congress and the Tipra-Motha, the other two main opposition parties in the state, had earlier announced not to field candidates in the two seats to prevent division of vote share.

The leaders of Motha headed by Pradyot Kishore Debbarma had declared not to support the BJP or the CPI (M) in the by-elections, leaving the choice to the voters and party workers.

On the other hand, Congress leaders, including state unit President Ashish Kumar Saha and MLA Sudip Roy Barman participated campaigned for the CPI (M) candidates.

The CPI (M) has nominated Mizan Hossain in Boxanagar and Kaushik Chanda in Dhanpur, while the ruling BJP has fielded Taffajal Hossain in Boxanagar and Bindu Debnath in Dhanpur.