AGARTALA, May 2 � Polling personnel have reached their respective polling booths to conduct the elections to 28 constituencies of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) scheduled for Sunday, official sources here said.
The polling in 1,070 booths will be conducted from 7 am to 5 pm on Sunday amidst tight security across the State, Election Commissioner for district council SK Rakesh told media persons here on Saturday.
Around 7.58 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of record-breaking 177 number of candidates. �To ensure free and fair elections, 16 observers and 165 sector officers have been appointed in the State�, he said.
According to reports, each constituency would witness multi-cornered fight in the tribal council with five to eight candidates contesting the election. It appears that the battle of ballots would be between CPM-led Left Front and INPT or IPFT. In some constituencies, the Congress may spoil INPT or IPFT�s attempt to defeat the Left candidates.
An elaborate security arrangement has been made for conducting free and fair poll of the tribal council. Briefing media at the Secretariat on Friday, IG Law & Order Anurag Dhankar said around 13,000 security personnel will be deployed on the day of polling so that voters could cast their votes without any fear.
�About 6,900 TSR personnel, 4000 State police, 21 companies of Central Armed Police Force ( CAPF), besides 300 forest guards and 400 Home Guards will be engaged for the elections� said Anurag.
To ensure incident-free elections, the BSF authority has been asked to intensify vigil along the Indo-Bangla border on the day of polling. The BSF confirmed it would ensure fool-proof security along the unfenced border to thwart any intrusion attempt from across the border.
Of the total 1,070 polling booths � 79 booths have been identified as hyper sensitive, 360 booths as sensitive and 631 as normal. A section of troops would be engaged to guard hyper-sensitive booths while half section of jawans would be deployed for each sensitive booth to ensure peace during the polling.