Guwahati: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha visited temples and did a pooja before heading to the polling station to cast his vote at the Tulshibati Higher Secondary School in Agartala. First-time voters have been urged to utilise their right to vote by the chief minister.
Voters are extremely enthusiastic, as evidenced by the long lines outside polling places on February 16 starting at 5:30 am.
According to reports, Tripura’s royal scion and TIPRA Motha chairman Pradyot Manikya Debbarma is scheduled to cast his ballot at 10 a.m. while former chief minister of Tripura and CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar is expected to vote between 10 and 10.30 a.m.
According to the Election Commission, there are about 28.14 lakh eligible voters, including 14,15,233 male voters, 13,99,289 female voters and 62 third-party voters. Vote tallying has begun at 3,337 polling locations.
Ample security precautions have been put in place for the elections. There are 97 police stations that are all managed by women in the state. There are 6,21,505 voters aged 22 to 29 and 94,815 voters between the ages of 18 and 19. The 40-59 age bracket is the one with the most registered voters (9,81,089 total votes).
A triangular election is possible because the BJP is running with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), the Congress and CPI(M), longtime rivals, formed a pre-election alliance to defeat the BJP and the Tipra Motha, a strong regional party founded in 2021 by Pradyot Kishore Debbarma and regarded as a kingmaker in the event of a hung assembly, emerged as an influential force. On the other hand, Trinamool Congress has also put out candidates for a number of seats.