66 out of 67: BJP sweeps Tripura civic byelections

PTI

Metros, In Other Cities

"The lone seat in the Panisagar Nagar Panchayat went in favour of the opposition CPI-M," the official told the media.

The Tripura State Election Commission last month declared the by-elections to the 158 seats in 14 municipal bodies, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation.

Agartala: The ruling BJP bagged 66 of the 67 seats in the bypolls held on Thursday for the vacant seats in different municipal bodies and Agartala Municipal Corporation, officials said.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Pabitra Kar said on Friday that a rally would be organised on Saturday to protest the "total farcical civic elections and murder of democracy in Tripura by the BJP governemnt".

"The lone seat in the Panisagar Nagar Panchayat went in favour of the opposition CPI-M," the official told the media.

The Tripura State Election Commission  last month declared the by-elections to the 158 seats in 14 municipal bodies, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation.

CPI-M state secretary Gautam Das said: "On Thursday, during the day of polling, in allmost all places, most of the polling agents including women, were forced out from polling booths to turn the balloting a complete farce. Not only the workers and their goons, BJP leaders including its MLA Dilip Das attacked the Left party workers and agents."

He said BJP workers also assaulted former finance minister and incumbent Public Accounts Committee Chairman Bhanulal Saha in Bishalgarh in Western Tripura on Thursday.

Congress leaders Harekrishna Bhowmik and Tapas Dey told the media that the party has demanded a re-poll in almost half of the total of 67 seats as the BJP members have totally controled the elections with the help of the administration.

BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee rejected the allegations of the CPI-M and the Congress, saying that "people have already turned their face away from these parties as they lost the public support in the recent assembly polls."

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