AGARTALA, April 16 - The high-voltage campaign for the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency ended on Tuesday with political parties leaving no stone unturned to woo voters during the past one month.
While Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb led the BJP�s campaign, highlighting the Central Government�s achievement in the past five years, the main Opposition �CPI(M) � seems to be not so active in this regard.
However, the Congress which failed miserably to make a mark in the Assembly elections, managed to organise some big rallies banking on the State�s royal scion, Pradyot Kishore Debbarman, who is also the PCC president. Interestingly, Congress candidate for East Tripura seat is Pragya Debbarman who is the sister of the PCC president.
Although eight candidates are in the electoral battle for the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency, which has over 40 per cent tribal voters, there will be contest among three candidates � Rabati Tripura (BJP), Pragya Debbarman (Congress) and Jitendra Chowdhury (CPM). Another tribal leader, NC Debbarma, who is the Revenue Minister of the BJP-IPFT Government, failed make any mark during the campaign.
The campaign for the East Tripura constituency ended without any major trouble and the process has begun to conduct free, fair and peaceful election, said Returning Officer (RO) Vikash Singh.
While speaking to media persons, he stated that 12,61,876 voters would exercise their franchise to decide the fate of eight candidates on April 18.
Polling personnel will leave for polling booths on Wednesday from their respective dispersal centres with security forces, he said, adding that security has been intensified.
The constituency spread over six out of total eight districts in the State, has 1,645 booths. According to sources, around 25-30 booths have been identified as critical.
In the last Assembly elections, 30 Assembly segments which fall under East Tripura Lok Sabha seat witnessed 90 per cent polling, while voting percentage of the State in the 2014 Parliamentary election stood at 81.74.
