Polling for the 60-member-House will be held on Saturday. Totally around 20,35,877 voters are expected to decide the fate of 313 candidates, including 23 women, in the fray.
The state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) G S G Ayengar said that 2,391 polling booths had been set up and 108 of them were classified as ‘very vulnerable’ while 500 others as ‘vulnerable’. He said about 200 companies of additional Central paramilitary forces had been deployed to ensure a free, fair and peaceful poll in the militancy-hit state.
The CPM-led Left Front has been ruling the state since 1978, with a five years’ break between 1988 and 1993 when the Congress and its ally Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti were in power.
The Congress is contesting for the 47 seats, while the INPT has put up its candidates in 11 seats.
The CPM is contesting for the 56 seats, while its two allies — CPI and Revolutionary Socialist Party — have fielded candidates in two constituencies each. The run-up to the poll was marked by an intense war of words between the Congress and its leftist allies at the Centre.