AGARTALA:
If Tripura Pradesh is to be believed, the Election Commission of India (ECI) will send a high-level team to inspect the law and order situation in Tripura.
“We have demanded to form a high-level delegation team to visit Tripura to inspect the condition of law and order situation whether it is conducive for a free and fair poll or not because not a single election in Tripura was held peacefully or free and fair. They assured us and said they will take appropriate steps,” said former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Asish Kumar Saha, who defected to the Congress a few months ago.
A delegation of party leaders led by All India Congress Committee (AICC) Tripura in-charge Ajoy Kumar, Tripura Congress chief Birajit Sinha, former BJP minister Sudip Roy Barman, AICC Secretary Szarita Laitphlang and a few others, met with the ECI on April 21 to apprise it about the situation.
“We met the Election Commissioner and held a detailed discussion. Elections that were held in Tripura after 2018 were not free and fair. Candidates from opposition parties could not submit their nomination papers. Many leaders and their houses came under attack. Polling agents also came under attack. In various ways, they (BJP) attacked and threatened the leaders of opposition parties. We apprised him about the law and order situation in the state and urged him to intervene so that free and fair elections can be held in the coming days,” the senior Congress leader said.
Saha, lashing out at chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb for encouraging and backing goons, further alleged that journalists and media houses too are coming under attack from BJP backed miscreants.
“Not only people related with opposition parties, even journalists are coming under attack for covering reports. The BJP is backing goons to disrupt the law and order situation even in the assembly constituency of the chief minister. The BJP goons attacked a public rally of Congress and also attacked Congress Bhawan. We filed FIR but nothing has been done so far. In these circumstances free and fair poll is not possible,” he added.
Tripura is set for two polls, a bye-election, which will be held on four assembly seats, and a state legislative assembly election slated for 2023.