Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agarwal said that to conduct a transparent and tranquil by-elections, a series of measures would be taken to tackle potential infringements and uphold the overall security of the process.
Various collaborative efforts alongside law enforcement bodies, including the central forces, specially the Border Security Force (BSF) being initiated to make the by-elections free, fair and incident free, he said.
Agarwal said that he already held meetings with Chief Secretary Jitendra Kumar Sinha, Director General of Police Amitabh Ranjan and senior other officials and leaders of all political parties.
A total of 93,234 voters are eligible to cast their votes in Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats on September 5. The statutory notification for the by-elections was issued on Thursday. As per the schedule, the last date of filing nominations is August 17 and the scrutiny of candidatures would take place next day. The last date of withdrawal of nominations is August 21.
Votes would be counted on September 8.
The by-election in Dhanpur assembly seat was necessitated after Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik resigned from the Assembly days after her election from the seat as BJP nominee in February 16 Assembly elections, result of which was declared on March 2. The Muslim-dominated Boxanagar assembly seat fell vacant after the death of sitting CPI-M MLA Samsul Haque, who died here on July 19 after a cardiac attack.
–IANS
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