BJP wins 96 per cent of panchayat bypoll seats in Tripura uncontested

The BJP in Tripura has won around 96 per cent seats uncontested in the three-tier panchayat bypolls in the state scheduled to be held on September 30, State Election Commissioner GK Rao said on Tuesday.

Rao said that by-elections would be held in only 132 panchayat seats and seven panchayat samity seats on September 30.

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"By-elections would be held in only 132 gram panchayat seats, and seven panchayat samity seats on September 30 as the rest of the seats were won by the BJP uncontested," Rao told PTI.

Bypolls were scheduled to be held in 3,386 seats- 3,207 in gram panchayat, 161 in panchayat samitis and 18 zilla parishad seats. However, 3,247 of these (95.89 per cent) were won by the BJP uncontested.

Meanwhile, the Opposition parties alleged that elected representatives were forced to resign by the BJP and the BJP workers did not allow their candidates to submit nomination papers for the elections. The Opposition parties demanded the state election commission for postponement of the elections.

The state election commissioner, however, said that the by-elections cannot cannot be deferred as no violence was reported in the offices where the nomination papers were submitted.

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"There is not a single complaint against Block Development officers, who act as returning officers for gram panchayat polls or against district magistrates, who function as returning officers for zilla parishad polls," Rao said.

The opposition Left Front had last week demanded rescheduling of the bypolls claiming that opposition candidates could not file nomination papers due to attacks and intimidations by miscreants belonging to the BJP.

(With PTI inputs)