Tripura Congress flags concerns over delimitation, pitches for online nomination in Panchayat polls

The Tripura unit of the Congress Party has placed a slew of demands before the state election commission to ensure that the ensuing polls could be conducted fairly. A delegation of Congress leaders under the leadership of Congress Vice President Madan Saha met the State Election Commissioner Saradindu Chowdhury and handed over the charter of demands.

The Tripura unit of the Congress Party has placed a slew of demands before the state election commission to ensure that the ensuing polls could be conducted fairly. A delegation of Congress leaders under the leadership of Congress Vice President Madan Saha met the State Election Commissioner Saradindu Chowdhury and handed over the charter of demands. Speaking exclusively to ANI on the demands, Tripura PCC Chief Asish Kumar Saha said, "Our party leaders have placed some demands urging the state election commission for fair play in the polls. We have said that recently some delimitation exercises were carried out statewide and Panchayats were reshaped. The voters are also shifted from one ward to another. Our workers at the Panchayat level noticed some discrepancies in the exercise and raised the issue before the Block Development Officer and local SDM. When they didn't get any response the matter was taken up with the state election commission."

The Congress party also demanded the deployment of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces and arrangements for online submission of nomination forms for these polls. "After the BJP came to power in 2018, not a single election was conducted fairly. In the last Panchayat elections, BJP swept 96 per cent of the seats uncontested. Because of threats and intimidation, people didn't even turn up to file nomination papers. In West Bengal, as per the direction of the High Court, this process was introduced in the last Panchayat polls. A similar arrangement should be done here to prepare a level playing field for the opposition and the ruling party. The Congress has asked the state poll conducting body to hold the elections under the tight security of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces," he told ANI.

On being asked whether the Congress will fight the elections alone or the Congress and CPIM will contest the polls together, he said, "We have convened a meeting on June 18 to strategize for the Panchayat elections. The issue will come up for discussion in the meeting and after that, we can make an official comment on the issue." (ANI)

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