Amidst tight security the much-awaited 11th General Election to the Tripura state assembly will start from Thursday morning at 7 AM and will continue up to 4 PM in the afternoon to decide the fate of 259 candidates contesting in 60 assembly seats.

With assurance of ‘zero poll violence’, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has also taken a motto for ‘zero re-poll’ on the poll day  by delivering 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, Kiran Gitte said a total of electorate of 28, 14,584 will cast their votes in altogether 3,337 polling stations across all eight districts in 2504 locations and all polling stations will be covered with web-casting except 72 polling stations, where internet facilities are not available and videography of the polling process will taken through static video mode. He said a total of 259 candidates, including 31 women, are in the fray for 2023 assembly polls.

He said that a total of  97 polling stations will be exclusively managed by women poll personnel with women central forces while there will be 88 model polling stations; besides there will be 44 polling stations for casting votes by persons with disability (PWD).

In order to ensure a free and fair polling, the Commission has arranged a large number of police and paramilitary forces including Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and forces from other states, a 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.

There are altogether 259 candidates in the fray including independents but the major parties include ruling BJP and its ally IPFT, the Left Front and Congress alliance, Trinamool Congress and the regional Tipra-Motha . The BJP is contesting 55 seats , leaving only five for its alliance partner IPFT while the Left Front  is contesting 47 seats after allotting 13 seats to alliance partner the Congress. The Trinamool Congress is contesting 28 seats while the Tipra-Motha has put up candidates for 42 seats including 12 unreserved or general constituencies. There are altogether 60 assembly seats in Tripura out of which twenty are reserved for tribal and ten reserved for scheduled castes.

A multi-cornered contest would be witnessed in 57 seats and a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress-Left alliance in three remaining Assembly segments.

The triangular or multi-cornered contests would be witnessed in 57 seats between the BJP- IPFT alliance and the Congress-CPI(M)-led Left Front coalition.

The straight contests between the BJP and the opposition alliance are on the cards in three assembly segments  Barjala in Agartala, Jubarajnagar in North Tripura and Sabroom in South Tripura.

The CEO said that of the 259 candidates, the highest number of 55 candidates have been put up by the ruling BJP, followed by CPI(M) (43), Tipra Motha Party (42), Trinamool Congress (28), and Congress (13). A total of 58 Independent candidates and 14 nominees from various smaller parties are also contesting the elections.