- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
A total of 829 candidates from different political parties and independent ones have submitted their nomination papers to contest during the upcoming urban local bodies election of Tripura, scheduled to be held on November 25 next.
The nomination papers were submitted to all the sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) who are appointed as Returning Officers by the State Election Commission in Tripura.
According to the information released by the State Election Commission on Wednesday evening, a total of 212 candidates from different political parties including 13 independent candidates filed their nomination papers for 51 seats in Agartala Municipal Corporation under West Tripura district.
The urban local bodies of West district are – 12 candidates for 11 seats in Jirania Nagar Panchayat, 13 candidates for 13 seats in Ranirbazar Municipal Council and 15 candidates for 15 seats in Mohanpur Municipal Council.
Meanwhile, a total of 75 candidates filed nomination papers for 25 seats in Dharmanagar Municipal Council and 32 candidates for 13 seats in Panisagar Nagar Panchayat under North Tripura district.
In total, 56 & 40 candidates had submitted their nomination papers for 17 seats in Kailashahar Municipal Council and 15 in Kumarghat Municipal Council, respectively under Unakoti district.
Under Dhalai district, 48 candidates filed nomination papers for 15 seats in Ambassa Municipal Council and 11 candidates for 11 seats in Kamalpur Nagar Panchayat.
Altogether, 27 candidates and 53 candidates had filed their nomination papers for 15 seats each in Khowai and Teliamura Municipal Councils, respectively under Khowai district.
A total of 30 candidates and 52 candidates had submitted their nomination papers for 13 seats each in Melaghar Municipal Council and Sonamura Nagar Panchayat while 15 candidates filed papers for 15 seats in Bishalgarh Municipal Council under Sepahijala district.
Under Gomati district, 32 candidates have filed nominations for 13 seats in Amarpur Nagar Panchayat and 23 candidates for 23 seats in Udaipur Municipal Council submitted their nomination papers.
In total, 44 candidates, 21 candidates and 18 candidates for 17 seats in Belonia Municipal Council, 15 seats in Santirbazar Municipal Council and 9 seats in Sabroom Nagar Panchayat, respectively had filed their nomination papers under South Tripura district.
From BJP, 336 nomination papers were submitted. AITMC submitted 125 papers, 214 by CPIM, 101 by INC, 32 by independent candidates, 6 by CPI, 5 by AIFB and 2 by RSP, while TIPRA Motha had submitted nomination papers in 8 seats.
Although, the State Election Commission (SEC) has not yet declared but following this submission of nomination papers till the last date, i.e., till Wednesday, it is revealed that the Bharatiya Janata Party had already captured 7 urban local bodies.
These are Kamalpur Nagar Panchayat, Jirania Nagar Panchayat, Ranirbazar Municipal Council, Mohanpur Municipal Council, Udaipur Municipal Council, and Santirbazar Municipal Council.
It is worthy to mention here that there are 334 constituencies with an increase of seats in 10 urban local bodies. The submission of nomination papers ended today while the scrutiny of their papers will be done on November 05 and the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers is on November 08.
A total of 5 lakh 94 thousand 772 electorates will exercise their franchise through 770 polling stations across the 20 ULBs.
The voting will take place on November 25 next from 7 AM to 4 PM and counting will take place on November 28 from 8 AM onwards.
