By-elections to the four assembly seats in Tripura namely Agartala, Town Bardowali, Surma and Jubarajnagar began at 7 am amid tight security arrangements on Thursday.

Till 9 am, 15.29 percent voter turnout was recorded in Agartala, 16.25 percent in Town Bardowali, 13 percent in Surma nad 14 percent in Jubarajnagar.

Polling is taking place at 221 booths and will continue till 5 pm.

As many as 73 polling stations out of 221 have been listed as sensitive under three specific categories such as critical, vulnerable and critically vulnerable, whereas the rest are categorized as normal.

As per the election commission data, a total of 1,89,032 electorates consisting of 95,389 females and 93,638 males are eligible to exercise their universal adult franchise in the four constituencies.

The by-elections in Agartala and Town Bardowali constituencies were necessitated after Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Saha quit as BJP MLAs and joined the Congress in February.

Meanwhile, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha cast his vote this morning at a polling station in Town Bardowali assembly constituency.