Voting at 168 booths in West Tripura Lok Sabha seat held void, repolling on May 12

The Election Commission on Wednesday declared the voting held at 168 polling stations of West Tripura parliamentary constituency as void. Polling on the seat was held in the first phase of April 11.

The poll panel has now scheduled repolling on all 168 booths in the sixth phase on May 12, from 7 am to 5 pm.

The voting at these polling stations was declared void based on reports submitted by the chief electoral officer, special observer and the returning officer.

Earlier, retired IAS officer and former Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi, who was appointed Special Observer for Tripura on April 22, had recommended repolling in 131 polling stations in his report to the poll panel recently, saying that the “poll process was vitiated.”

The move comes days after Tripura Congress alleged that the Election Commission was under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. It had also warned of moving the Supreme Court if repolling was not held in at least 850 polling stations.

The constituency which underwent polling on April 11 has 1,679 polling booths. The state has two Lok Sabha seats – West Tripura and East Tripura.