Vote boycott as a mark of potest, a new trend in Tripura’s electoral politics

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, April 27, 2024

The boycott of vote by large sections of people in several areas of the state seems to have come as a new trend in Tripura’s electoral politics. In the just concluded elections to the West Tripura (general) and East Tripura (ST) Loksabha seats several hundred tribal voters in Simna assembly constituency and in Ampi assembly seat boycotted the vote on April 19 and 26th . Apparently this was in protest against the lack of development and specially crisis of drinking water and lack of proper roads provoked people to desist from voting as a mark of protest.

On the polling days the tribal people in both the areas categorically said that they had long been suffering from crisis of drinking water and lack of proper roads and connectivity to and from their areas and in spite of repeated demands the administration had failed to redress their grievances . That is why they had taken this extreme measure. No such thing had ever happened earlier.

However, there is a deafening silence in the political circles over this vote boycott programme. No leader from BJP, Tipra Motha or IPFT made any comment on this directly but some of them hinted that the issues spawned by the vote boycott will be looked into . However, lack of any initiative either from state government or ADC for the development of the affected areas is likely to remain a sore point with the inhabitant of these areas and affected people may go for more drastic action.