Voting for the by-elections to the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura’s Sepahijala district is currently underway. The polling began at 7 a.m. in 59 booths in Dhanpur assembly constituency and 51 in Boxanagar, and is expected to continue till 4 p.m. Heavy deployment of security personnel has been made to ensure the smooth conduct of the elections.
In the Boxanagar assembly segment, there are 66 per cent minority voters out of a total of 43,087 electors. The CPI(M) managed to retain the seat in the last assembly elections held in February.
The Dhanpur assembly constituency, once considered a stronghold of the Left, will witness a fight between BJP’s Bindu Debnath and CPI(M)’s Kaushik Debnath. There are a total of 50,346 eligible voters in this constituency. The BJP had won the seat for the first time in the assembly polls held seven months ago.
The Congress and the Tripra Motha did not field their candidates in the two seats for the bypolls. The by-election to the Boxanagar constituency was necessitated by the death of CPI(M) MLA Samsul Haque, while Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik’s resignation as the MLA of Dhanpur necessitated the by-election to that seat.
The counting of votes will take place on September 8.
