The election to the West Tripura Loksabha seat got off to a peaceful start at 7-00 AM today with traditionally clad voters forming long queues in front of 793 polling stations across the constituency comprising 30 assembly segments. As per announcement in the election commission website overall 63% of polling has taken place in the Loksabha constituency till 2-00 PM while 34% polling has been recorded in the by-election to the Ram Nagar assembly constituency till 1-00 PM. Except stray incidents of untoward nature the polling was more or less  peaceful. 

The returning officer of the West Tripura constituency and DM (west) Dr Vishal Kumar said that he had extensively toured different parts of the Sadar subdivision to see how polling was going on . Two persons were arrested in Mohanpur assembly segment for creating obstacles in the path of voters and for assaulting voters while another person was arrested in the New Capital Complex police station area for indulging in illegal activities . “I have already received lot of complaints from candidates and parties but some of them turned out to be incorrect and in some  cases we have taken action” said Dr Vishal Kumar.

He also conceded that lack of central paramilitary forces compared with the deployment in 2019 was creating a problem as in the 2019 Loksabha polls altogether 400 companys of central forces had been deployed while this time only 85 companys of forces have come. Besides, five thusand TSR forces have been deployed in addition to the BSF personnel along the border. Without making any comment Dr Vishal Kumar indicated that the number of central paramilitary forces deployed was not adequate. He however expressed the hope that the election today in west Tripura will pass off peacefully and smoothly.