Agartala, July 31: Counting of votes are underway as the State Election Commission (SEC) is expected to declare the results of Tripura Panchayat elections 2019 today. Opposition parties, including the CPI(M) and the Congress, expressed doubt on whether the poll outcome will reflect the true mandate of the people.

Leaders of the two main Opposition parties have alleged that the BJP resorted to unethical practices to tilt the election outcome in their favour. Supports of the Left Front were not allowed to freely cast their votes, whereas, their candidates were prevented from filing candidature in scores of seats, the CPI(M) said in a statement. BJP Wins 83 Per Cent of 6,646 Seats Unopposed in Gram Panchayat Polls

The elections to the three-tier gram panchayats in Tripura were held on Saturday in only 994 of the total of 6,646 seats as the ruling BJP has already won 85 per cent seats unopposed.

An official of the Tripura State Election Commission (SEC) said that 8,54,900 of the total 12,03,070 electors were eligible to exercise their franchise in 833 gram panchayats, 82 panchayat samitis and 79 zilla parishad seats. In all, 2,327 candidates were contesting the elections held in 1,848 polling stations in 31 blocks under eight districts.

Over 9,500 government employees and senior officials were put on duty to conduct the polling.

"Several opposition parties, including CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) and Congress, did not field candidates in the majority of seats and the two parties have also withdrawn many candidatures," the SEC official said.

The electioneering for the local bodies had been accompanied by political violence and clashes earlier this month injuring at least 75 political leaders and workers of the ruling BJP, CPI(M) and Congress.

According to the police, the pre-poll violence and clashes mainly occured in the South Tripura, West Tripura, Khowai and North Tripura districts.

Leaders of the CPI-M-led Left Front and the Congress have separately alleged that due to "large scale intimidation by BJP workers, there was no conducive situation to hold the panchayat polls and so their candidates have failed to submit nominations in thousands of seats.

The Opposition also alleged that BJP workers and the "party-sponsored hooligans" were still intimidating their small number of candidates who are in the electoral race despite unprecedented terrorisation and intimidation.

"The police and the State Election Commission remained inactive and an onlooker in dealing with the violent situation in the state," the Opposition leaders told the media separately.

CPI-M state secretary and the party Central Committee member Gautam Das said that they had complained to the State Election Commission that some of the returning officers were also acting in BJP's favour and had not even accepted the valid nomination papers of the Left candidates.

"As the BJP has already detached itself from the people due to its 16 months of mis-governance, it is now banking on hooligans and criminals to keep the opposition parties out of the electoral contest," state Congress Vice-President Tapas Dey told mediapersons .

Rubbishing the accusations, BJP leaders had claimed that the Opposition parties have lost their political bases and were not getting anyone for fielding as candidates.

(With IANS inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 31, 2019 05:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).