Agartala, May 4 (IANS) The counting of votes for the Dharmanagar Assembly bypoll, for which the election was held on April 9, began at 8 a.m. on Monday under tight security arrangements, officials said.

Election officials said that postal ballots will be counted first, followed by votes cast in EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines), and there will be four rounds of counting in the North Tripura district headquarters in Dharmanagar.

Votes will be counted in only one counting hall where 14 tables, including one for postal ballots, have been placed. Each counting table will be supervised and monitored by a counting supervisor and counting assistants. Central observers appointed by the Election Commission will monitor the counting process.

The results are expected to be declared by Monday afternoon.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Northern Range) Ratiranjan Debnath told the media that a three-tier security arrangement has been put in place ahead of the counting of votes for the bypoll to the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency in North Tripura district.

North Tripura District Magistrate and Collector Chandni Chandran, who is the District Election Officer, along with Returning Officer Debjani Choudhury, said that Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Tripura State Rifles, and state Police personnel in adequate numbers were deployed in the three-tier security arrangements in and around the counting centre.

Prohibitory orders have been imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) within a 100-metre radius of the counting centre from 6 a.m. on Monday till the end of the counting of votes to ensure peaceful vote counting.

Choudhury, who is the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Dharmanagar Sub-Division, said that 14 counting tables were set up in the counting centre at the district headquarters, and votes recorded in 55 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be counted in four phases.

Around 80 per cent of the 46,142 voters, including 23,758 women, exercised their vote in the bypoll for the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency in North Tripura district on April 9. The bypoll was necessitated by the demise of sitting MLA and Tripura Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen, who passed away on December 26 last year at a private hospital in Bengaluru after a prolonged illness at the age of 72.

Sen had been elected to the Tripura Assembly four times — twice as a Congress candidate in 2008 and 2013, and later in 2018 and 2023 as a BJP nominee from the same Assembly constituency.

The Dharmanagar Assembly constituency has remained a stronghold of either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2008, with the CPI(M) last winning the Assembly seat in 2003.

A multi-cornered contest has made the electoral battle highly competitive. The six candidates in the fray include nominees from major political parties, smaller outfits, and an Independent candidate.

Key candidates include Jahar Chakraborti of the BJP, Chayan Bhattacharjee of the Congress, and Amitabha Datta representing the CPI(M)-led Left Front. Datta had won the seat in the 2003 Assembly elections. Chakraborti, 59, currently serves as the BJP’s North Tripura district Vice-President.

In addition, candidates from the Amra Bangali party, Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist, and an Independent aspirant are also contesting the bypoll, further intensifying the political contest.

The Left Front and the Congress, which had entered into a seat-sharing arrangement during the 2023 Tripura Assembly elections to jointly challenge the BJP, contested separately in this bypoll, adding another dimension to the contest.

Supported by the Left parties, Congress leader Chayan Bhattacharjee had earlier contested the Dharmanagar Assembly seat in 2023 but lost narrowly to BJP candidate Biswa Bandhu Sen by a margin of 956 votes.

–IANS

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