Tripura Elections: Will the Assembly Polls be ‘Free & Fair’ This Year?

Agartala/Sonamura: Haripada Das (62) has been driving auto-rickshaws who for the past 25 years. After struggling for many years, he now owns his own auto-rickshaw, he proudly told NewsClick. But, there are some things that have been troubling him and his family after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the North-Eastern state.

A resident of Natunnagar in Agartala, Das’s son owns a poultry farm which often comes under hafta (rangdaari tax) demands of the local ruling BJP leaders, he alleged. For Das, the prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing and paying Rs 400 per day as hafta is seeming a tedious affair.

“The ‘double engine’ BJP government (the term denotes the state and Central government being run by BJP) is choking us to death. The BJP is collecting such funds all over the state. My son had to cough up Rs 5,000 for their election fund. Being a novice in this field, my son earns about Rs 10,000 per month and regularly he has to cough up Rs 5,000-6,000 on various occasions to the ruling party,” he complained.

Das also said he was skeptical whether the polls (Tripura Assembly polls are being held on February 16) this time would free and fair, adding that in the past five years (of BJP rule) he has not been able cast his vote even once.

“In the last Agartala corporation elections, the entire voting process was over 9 a.m and genuine voters were unable to cast their vote, he alleged, adding that the Election Commission has taken many steps but those are no assurance for voters like him as “the bike gangs of the ruling party won’t let us vote.”

It may be recalled that in the bypolls in the state, voting had turned into “farce”, he said.

Tripura had witnessed a spate of violent incidents, allegedly by BJP workers, after the saffron party secured three seats in the concluded bypolls.
 

Read Also: Tripura Witnesses Post Bypoll Violence Against Opposition Parties

It may be recalled that the election was marred with Opposition allegations of voter intimidation, rigging and booth capture.

After the results were out in the afternoon, in Agartala suburbs, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders' houses were vandalised in several places. In Bilonia, Satmura, Tripura Bazaar area, houses and vehicles of CPI(M) activists came under direct attack by anti-social elements, allegedly sheltered by BJP. In the same place in Agartala, the offices and properties of Congress were also vandalised.

State Congress president Birjit Sinha came under attack an unruly mob attacked the party office. Sinha had to be hospitalised after the incident.

During the last panchayat elections, 96 year old  Abdul Hashem of Angaria  village of Sonamura subdivision was unable to vote as there were no contests in over 90% of the seats “taken over forcefully” by ruling party members, it is alleged. About 80% of the population in this village are from the minority community.

Such tales can be heard across Tripura, where the main question being raised by many people is whether the upcoming Assembly polls will be “free and fair”.

Hashem told NewsClick that in his younger days he had seen that tola vote (where raising hands before the king’s court was marked as a vote) but he never imagined that voting would become such a fighting process in BJP’s reign.

Jitendra Choudhury, CPI(M) state secretary, told NewsClick that in North and South Tripura, it wont be easy passage for BJP “hooligans to loot votes” as they will face a challenge from the public in many pockets. “However, in West Tripura, the atmosphere is tense and we are depending on peoples resistance to get a positive result in this vote,” he added.