Agartala: Polling to elect a new assembly in the Left-ruled Tripura ended peacefully yesterday with more than 92 percent voters casting their ballots.
“Over 92 percent of the 2.35 million voters have cast their votes across the state,” said Chief Electoral Officer Ashutosh Jindal.
He said the percentage might still go jup after reports on the day’s balloting arrive from all over the state. Jindal said people were still standing in queues outside polling stations even after the time to vote ended at 4pm.
Voters in large numbers queued up well before polling started at 7am New voters and women appeared the most enthusiastic across the state. According to Jindal, except one or two small incidents, the voting passed off peacefully with no major incident reported from anywhere in the north-eastern state, which shares a 856km border with Bangladesh.
The ballots will be counted on February 28 and decide the electoral fate of 249 candidates, including 15 women and many Independents, in the fray.
Assam’s Rabha areas
tense, toll rises to 21
Guwahati: Curfew was relaxed but tension prevailed in Rabha community areas in Assam’s Goalpara and Kamrup districts even as the toll in panchayat poll-related violence rose to 21 with the discovery of another body yesterday, said officials.
There was no fresh violence since Wednesday evening except for one incident at Gobindapur area in Goalpara where some inmates of a relief camp attacked a delegation0 of the Congress, reaching there to take stock of the situation. Congress leader and former MP Anowar Hussain and his security personnel received injuries during the attack, police said adding that the inmates also partially damaged the vehicle of the delegation. Hussain’s condition is, however, out of danger now.IANS
