Tripura by-election results to be announced on Sunday
The results of the by-polls held on June 23 in the four politically-crucial Assembly constituencies in Tripura will be announced on Sunday (June 26), officials said.
The counting of votes for the by-elections to Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma, and Jubarajnagar Assembly constituencies in three districts -- West Tripura, North Tripura and Dhalai -- would begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
The Election Commission has taken several measures including the promulgation of the prohibitory orders 144 CrPc within 200 metre radius of the counting centres, and the deployment of the central forces in and around the counting venues.
Over 78.58 per cent of the 1,89,032-strong electorate cast their votes on Thursday in the by-elections to four Assembly constituencies in Tripura amid some stray incidents of violence.
The outcome of the by-election would decide the political fortune of 22 candidates including seven women.
The by-election is being termed by the political pundits as "semi-final" before the 60-member Assembly's general elections, which is just eight months away.
The focus of the by-elections is mainly on the Town Bordowali Assembly constituency where 69-year-old Congress-turned-BJP leader and Chief Minister Manik Saha is contesting against five other candidates.
Saha, BJP's state president and a Rajya Sabha member who assumed office on May 15, a day after Biplab Kumar Deb's resignation from the post of chief minister, is contesting the elections for the first time.
To fulfil the constitutional bindings, he has to become a member of the Assembly within six months.
The by-polls were necessitated after the resignation of three BJP MLAs including former Minister Sudip Roy Barman following the open revolt against Deb and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath.