By TC News Desk
Agartala, January 11, 2023: A team of 15 senior officials from the Election Commission of India led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel arrived here on Wednesday for two-day state visit in reviewing poll preparedness ahead of assembly election in Tripura.
In the state guest house premises here, the officials of ECI met the representatives of the political parties- BJP, IPFT, CPIM, Congress and Trinamool Congress on Wednesday afternoon.
On behalf of BJP, Pradesh BJP Manifesto Committee convenor and vice-president Dr Ashok Sinha, Pradesh BJP Manifesto Committee convenor and vice-president Dr Ashok Sinha and state committee member Balai Goswami met with ECI officials led by CEC Rajiv Kumar at State Guest House.
Speaking to media persons here, Dr Sinha said “We have demanded the ECI to ensure peaceful, free and fair election as BJP completely believes in democracy. Tripura has past record of casting votes more than 90 percent in each and every election. Hence, the commission should ensure that the voters can exercise their democratic rights in a festive mood.”
On behalf of CPIM, party’s state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury and state committee member Ratan Das met with the delegation of ECI at State Guest House here and placed a memorandum of six pages.
Speaking to reporters, Chaudhury appealed “Poll must be held in a single day. The officers who were removed from election duty for any lapses in earlier election should not be appointed in any election duty again. Central para-military forces should be used in entire election process upto the counting and post-election period. Deployment of CPMF may be made well in advance before the poll date. They should conduct patrolling for area domination. The strength of deployment should be decided on the basis of vulnerability of the area. One ‘Police Observer’ for each district may be appointed from among the senior police officers who will be assigned deployment of the CPMF in the concerned district.”
On behalf of Congress, MLA Sudip Roy Barman and PCC president Birajit Sinha met with ECI officials.
Speaking to reporters here, Roy Barman said “Elaborate explanation has been made from our end about the experience people of Tripura have gathered which is not good. The Election Commission has ensured us that the election will be conducted in a free and fair manner. However, we appealed that police patrolling should be ensured in different narrow lanes and alleys of different constituencies so that the electorates can reach polling booths and back to their homes safely. The ECI officials appreciated all our points raised and noted them seriously.”
TMC state president Pijush Kanti Biswas said that there has been no free and fair election in Tripura in the past. The CEO office assured us many things in written form, but never executed in reality. “Voting has been a farce as electorates of different ages were attacked who have come for exercising their democratic rights in presence of police. People’s desire has never been reflected after the formation of BJP-led government as election was never conducted in a fair mode.”
