JOIN US78.56% of the 25.7 lakh voters in Tripura cast their votes on Sunday in what is a crucial Assembly election for the CPM, which has been in power in the north-eastern state for past 25 years without interruption.
No incidents of violence were reported during the polling, senior Election Commission officials said adding that two crude bombs were recovered but were disposed of.
Voting was held in 59 of the 60 seats in the state, while polling to one seat, the Charilam constituency, was postponed after the death of the CPM candidate, Ramendra Narayan Debbarma, a week ago. The polling in Charilam will be held on March 12.
In the 2013 elections in the state, the polling percentage stood at 91.82.
The counting of votes will be held on March 3 along with the counting in Meghalaya and Nagaland.
"There were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs - many were found to be false. Twelve ballot units were replaced. VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura," the official said.
The election is crucial for the Manik Sarkar-led government. At present, the CPM-led Left Front has 50 seats but it is to be seen whether they can retain power as BJP has campaigned aggressively with the 'Chalo Paltai' (Let's Change) slogan.
The CPM leadership is confident of pulling off a victory but admits that the battle is tough.
The Congress has virtually abandoned the electoral ground leaving the Opposition space to the BJP, which has allied with Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT).
The polls to the 20 tribal seats, which the CPM won last time, is fought hard.
The BJP is fighting 11 of the 20 tribal seats, leaving the rest to the IPFT, and the saffron party believes this would be the end of the CPM's game.