Digital Desk |
Agartala, Nov 6 (IANS) A total of 879 candidates from ruling and opposition parties have filed their nomination papers for the November 27 Urban Local Body (ULB) elections in Tripura, officials said on Friday.
The elections will be held in 21 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the state’s eight districts, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC), on November 27.
Friday was the last date for filing nomination papers, while November 10 is the deadline for withdrawal of candidatures.
A senior official of the Tripura State Election Commission (SEC) said that scrutiny of the nomination papers would be conducted on Saturday.
According to the official, of the total 879 candidates who have filed their nominations, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded the highest number of 345 candidates.
The CPI-M has nominated 263 candidates, followed by the Congress with 221 candidates and the BJP’s ally, the Tipra Motha Party (TMP), with 15 candidates.
Altogether, 35 candidates have filed their nomination papers as Independents.
Meanwhile, in five municipal bodies — Kamalpur in Dhalai district, Santir Bazar in South Tripura district, and Ranir Bazar, Jirania and Mohanpur in West Tripura district, no opposition party candidates filed their nomination papers, leaving the BJP as the only party in the electoral contest in these civic bodies.
Leaders of the CPI-M and the Congress alleged that candidates belonging to opposition parties were threatened by “ruling party goons” and that their proposers were also intimidated and threatened to prevent them from contesting the ULB elections in these five municipal bodies.
The SEC official said that a total of 6,29,903 voters, including 3,21,743 women, 3,08,115 men and 45 third-gender voters, are eligible to exercise their vote in the November 27 elections.
He also added that the terms of all 21 Urban Local Bodies, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation, are scheduled to expire on December 9.
The elections will be conducted for a total of 345 seats across the 21 urban local bodies in the state.
The Agartala Municipal Corporation alone accounts for 51 seats.
Of the total 345 seats, 162 have been reserved for women, while 80 seats have been reserved for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and nine seats for candidates from the Scheduled Tribes (STs).
The counting of votes for the November 27 elections will be taken up on December 2.
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