Amidst tight security, the general election for East Tripura parliamentary constituency (PC) of Tripura will start from Friday morning at 7 AM and will continue up to 5 PM in the afternoon to decide the fate of 9 candidates contesting .

With assurance of ‘zero poll violence’, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the poll day delivered sufficient equipment and accessories of all polling staff with adequate training to tackle any kind of technical glitch in EVMs.

Giving details Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Tripura, Puneet Agarwal said a total electorate of 13,96,761 will cast their votes in 1,664 polling booths across 30 assembly constituencies and all polling stations will be covered with web-casting and videography.  Among the total polling booths, 158 in urban areas, 1506 in rural areas with 1365 polling locations.

He said that many polling stations will be managed exclusively by women poll personnel with women central forces while there will be model polling stations; besides there will be few more polling stations for casting votes by persons with disability (PWD).

He urged the voters of the Lok Sabha seat to cast their vote without any fear and the Commission has made sufficient arrangements in every polling station for voters to get rid of hot and humid weather.

In order to ensure a free and fair polling, the Commission has arranged a large number of police and paramilitary forces including 85 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and forces from other states, helpline number for voters and twelve kinds of identity cards. The Commission has also declared that blocking any voter from casting his votes by any means is a punishable offence and will carry a sentence of two years jail term.

This time, altogether 16,260 Bru voters will cast their votes from 17 polling stations spreading in Dhalai, North and Gomati districts of Tripura under East Tripura PC, said Agarwal.

A multi-cornered contest would be witnessed in East Tripura PC. In the politically important Tripura East seat, the main contest is expected between BJP candidate Kriti Singh Debbarma and INDIA Bloc supported CPI (M) candidate and former MLA Rajendra Reang.

While rejecting the CPI(M)’s complaint of “irregularities” as voter turnout had exceeded 100 percent in few polling centres under Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, the CEO said that the mismatch is due to  the reserved polling personnel of nearby areas having casted their votes in these polling stations.

The voting was held in the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat in the first phase of election on April 19.

He said after investigation by the Election department, the Returning Officer (RO) in his inquiry report said that there is no discrepancy or subversion of the election process in the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat.

He said : “A report has been obtained from the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) of all the four polling booths and it has been seen that the mismatch is because of the votes of the election officials with Election Duty Certificate (EDC) polled in these polling stations.

The location of these polling stations is near the ARO headquarter or dispersal centre or strong rooms. In addition, many reserved polling personnel were deployed in nearby areas. These people have casted their votes in these polling stations through EDC on the election date.”

The CEO said that all the polling booths will be guarded by CAPFs and in case of any problem all voters can contact the thirty complaint redressal officers (CRO) for as many assembly segments with their mobile numbers with WhatsApp facilities to which any aggrieved voter can file complaints.

Agarwal said that the district administration has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 all over the constituency to prevent distribution of money and other inducements among voters and troubles likely to be created by the anti-social elements. While more than five people cannot move together at a time as per the restriction under the order, no person will be allowed to move around with weapons in hands like bamboo poles, rods, stones or other primitive weapons and fire-arms.

Besides, restrictions have been imposed on use of microphones, loud speakers in meetings or otherwise, holding of rallies and delivery of speeches near the polling stations or any other place in the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency after the end of the vocal campaign, which ended at 5 PM on Wednesday. The restrictions also cover movement of two or more vehicles at a time and on the polling day no person except a voter can enter a polling station or booth without due authorization letter from the Election Commission appointed officers. The steps have been taken to ensure a free and fair election in compliance with the guideline issued by the ECI.

Those who will remain out of purview of the restrictions imposed are Election department workers, employees and officers on election duty, security force jawans and officers, drivers and cleaners carrying authorized identity cards and media persons. The voters who will come to vote with EPICs, relatives of voters accompanying them provided they will wait beyond two hundred yards of the polling booth or station.