The Indian Express | 2 weeks ago | 11-01-2023 | 10:45 pm
The Opposition voiced concerns on Tripura’s law and order situation and said the Election Commission (EC) had the onus to ensure free and fair Assembly elections when Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel held an all-party meeting Wednesday, a week after the final electoral rolls were published.Speaking to reporters later, Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman said the commission had been apprised of the “situation faced by voters”. Proper deployment of security forces, security of polling booths and EVMs, mobile teams to ensure voter’s safety were also sought, he said.CPM state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury said that several elections in the past five years had witnessed gross violations of poll regulations and that people were stopped from casting their votes.Without naming the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti coalition, which ruled the state in 1988-93, Chaudhury said that the commission had taken proactive steps to guarantee free and fair elections when a government “similarly atrocious like the present one” was in power. “It is possible this time as well. But for that, the EC will have to take a few specific steps. We want the EC to maintain the constitutional spirit and law and order from right now and to take this election as a challenge. The EC has assured us that it will examine our demands and figure out required steps,” the CPM leader said.Citing the commission’s Mission Zero Violence for the elections, which was recently announced in Tripura, Chaudhury said such a move was never needed anywhere else in the country and that the move was testimony to the political violence prevalent in the Northeast state.Trinamool Congress state chief Pijush Kanti Biswas said his party had informed the commission that Tripura had “no atmosphere conducive for a free and fair election” and that official assurances had not translated into action in the past elections.“There has been no fair election since the BJP came to power. Opposition supporters are not able to do political activities here and are assaulted by BJP-backed goons. We have asked the EC to declare all poll booths sensitive and hyper-sensitive, or else no fair elections would be possible here because of violence. Sufficient central forces should be deployed here and they should not be put under state police to avoid bias,” Biswas said.BJP state vice-president Ashok Sinha brushed aside the allegations and said the saffron party believed in democracy and urged the commission to set an example before the country by ensuring free and fair elections. “Tripura is known for high political consciousness. Over 90 per cent votes are cast in elections here. So we have requested the commission to ensure all voters can vote peacefully. We have asked them specifically to look at border security, voter lists and people involved in illegal activities and to ensure free and fair polls,” he said.The BJP’s alliance partner, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura, said the party was concerned about pre-poll and post-poll violence in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council areas.In another development, the Congress welcomed the CPM’s alliance proposal. “It is a good step. Any democratic and secular party will say so and try its best so that all the political parties come together for the sake of the people of Tripura and to defeat this communal and anti-people government. Seat sharing is a different thing and it will be decided by the Congress state unit and senior leaders. Whatever will be decided will be for the benefit of the people of the state,” the party said.Late in the evening, the commission held review meetings with chief electoral officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte, district electoral officers and superintendents of police to take stock of the situation. It will review poll preparations with the chief secretary, the director-general of police and all secretariats of the government on Thursday.The commission inaugurated a mascot and a logo for the 2023 Assembly elections.
Share:
