A total of 259 candidates are in fray for the upcoming Tripura assembly elections which is scheduled to take place on February 16, chief electoral officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte informed.
Of total 310 nomination papers received during submission till January 30, 19 were rejected following lack of deposition of security deposit, insufficient proposers, among other reasons.
“Total 32 candidates have withdrawn their nomination papers till Thursday afternoon. Now, 259 candidates are going to contest the assembly polls,” Gitte told reporters in Agartala.
In the party-wise break up, BJP has 55 candidates, highest number of candidates followed by CPM which got 43, TIPRA Motha 42, Trinamool Congress (TMC) 28, Congress 13 candidates, BJP’s ally IPFT 6 and CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc fielding one candidate each.
There are a total of 58 independent candidates while seven are contesting from unrecognised parties.
Ten constituencies, Bamutia, Agartala, Town Bardowali in West Tripura, Dhanpur in Sepahijala district, Amarpur in Gomati district, Dharmanagar and Kanchanpur in North Tripura and Surma, Ambassa and Chowmanu constituencies in Dhalai district have the highest number of candidates with six in each seat.
Jubarajnagar constituency in North Tripura, Barjala in West Tripura and Sabroom constituency in South Tripura have lowest number of candidates with two in each seat.
Of the total 3,337 polling stations, 1,128 stations have been identified as vulnerable and 240 as critical.
In addition to 400 companies of central armed police force (CAPF), 11,000 police and Tripura State Rifles are also deployed in different parts of the state.
The inter-state boundaries with Assam and Mizoram will also be sealed for security purpose.
