AT Photo
Agartala, Sept 5: District Magistrate Sepahijala District who also holds the charge of District Election Officer Dr Vishal Kumar predicted that the total turnout may cross 85 percent mark in the by-elections likewise the March general elections.
Interacting with the media persons on the sidelines of his poll duty, Dr Vishal Kumar said, “Till 1 pm 60 percent voting has been complete across the state and if the trend continues as we have been witnessing since morning definitely the total vote percentage will cross the 85 percent mark. Because of the sweltering heat, the polling stations are looking little relaxed but in the morning times all polling stations had witnessed massive footfalls of electorates”.
The District Magistrate also informed the media persons that an incident of poll violence was reported at Taibandal area, a tribal belt of the Dhanpur assembly constituency where two persons have received mild injuries. “The details of the incident are still to reach my office”, he added. Replying to a query regarding the EVMs and VVPATs, he said, “When the voting was started, we received four calls of technical snags related to EVMs and VVPATs. All those problems have been immediately solved to resume voting”, he added.
Meanwhile, opposition CPIM has alleged that BJP sponsored miscreants had been intimidating voters and resorted to election malpractices in different booths of both the constituency. A senior CPIM leader said that Youth frontal leader of CPIM’s tribal wing GMP was fatally injured owing to an attack unprovoked attack launched upon him during the elections.
Allegations of the booth jamming also surfaced at Taibandal area. Barring a couple of stray incidents in some selected parts of both the constituencies, no reports of large scale booth capturing or violence had been reported. A total of 15 companies of Central Armed Forces have been pressed into action to maintain the law and order situation.
After casting her vote, Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik who vacated the Dhanpur constituency after March elections to continue as an MP and the only woman Central minister from the North East asserted that BJP’s victory in both the constituencies is inevitable.