Despite high-voltage campaigning by the stakeholders, voters’ turnout in the Tripura Assembly elections saw a dip of 14 per cent on Sunday with 76 per cent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercising their franchise as against 92 per cent recorded in 2013 Assembly polls.
Voting was held in 59 constituencies of 60-member Assembly as polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week. The constituency will go to polls on March 12.
The BJP is making a determined bid to dislodge the left Front which is in power for 25 years, with stalwarts like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah leading the charge.
The BJP, which had forged a pre-poll alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), had fielded 51 candidates. The IPFT, an anti-left party, contested from the remaining nine seats.
The Congress went it all alone in Tripura this time and contested from 59 seats. The party had not fielded a candidate from the Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.