Representative image of a person casting a vote.
Credit: PTI Photo
Agartala: Polling for the two Lok Sabha seats in Tripura will be held in two phases, the Election Commission (EC) announced on Saturday.
While the Tripura West seat will go to the polls on April 19, voting in the Tripura East seat will be held on April 26, it said.
The EC also announced the bypoll to the Ramnagar assembly constituency, which will be held on April 19.
'This time, the elections in the two seats will be held in two phases, on April 19 and 26,' Additional Chief Electoral Officer S Bandopadhayay told PTI.
While the last date for filing nominations for the Tripura West seat is March 27, the scrutiny will be done on March 28, and the last date for the withdrawal of nomination papers is March 30, he said.
For the Tripura East seat, the last date for the submission of nomination papers is April 4, the scrutiny will be done on April 5 and the last date for withdrawal is April 8, he added.
Around 30 companies of central forces will be deployed to guard the 1,685 polling booths in the Tripura West constituency to ensure free, fair and peaceful polling, Returning Officer Vishal Kumar said.
Of the total 793 polling booths in Tripura West, 150 have been identified as vulnerable where extra precautionary measures will be taken, he said.
As many as 14.61 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the Tripura West seat. In the Tripura East seat, the number of voters is 13.95 lakh.
In the Ramnagar assembly segment, there are 45,669 voters. The seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Surajit Dutta in December.
The BJP has fielded former CM Biplab Kumar Deb in the Tripura West seat, while Kriti Singh Debbarma, who is the sister of Tipra Motha founder Pradyot Debbarma, was named as its candidate in the Tripura East seat.
The Congress has named its state president Ashis Kumar Saha as its candidate for the Tripura West constituency, keeping the doors open for a CPI(M) candidate in the Tripura East seat. PTI PS SOM