BJP sweeps Panchayat polls in Tripura, wins 97% of seats

Agartala: The ruling BJP swept the three-tier Panchayat polls in Tripura, winning 97 per cent of seats, an official said on Wednesday.

The BJP secured victory uncontested in 71 per cent of the seats in Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zilla Parishads. The voting for the remaining 29 per cent seats was held on August 8 and the counting ended on Tuesday.

The party won 584 Gram Panchayats out of 606, 34 of 35 Panchayat Samities and eight out of eight Zilla Parishads, the official said.

The saffron party had won the both Lok Sabha seats in the northeastern state in June.

Out of 96 seats contested in eight Zilla Parishads, the BJP won 93 seats, while the Congress and CPI(M) emerged victorious in two and one seat respectively, State Election Commissioner Asit Kumar Das said.

In the case of Panchayat Samitis, the state’s party won 173 of the total 188 seats where voting was held. The CPI(M) and the Congress bagged six and eight seats respectively.

Das said that the BJP won 1,476 of the 1,819 Gram Panchayats seats contested. The CPI(M), Congress and the Tipra Motha got 148, 151, and 24 seats respectively.

The BJP thanked people for reposing faith in the BJP in the Panchayat elections.

The opposition parties, however, said that they could not field candidates in 71 per cent of the seats because of the alleged terror tactics of the ruling party.

Chief Minister Manik Saha said, "The mandate shows the people continue to keep faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his development programmes. The BJP won 97 per cent of the seats with huge margins. There must be an effort to win 100 per cent of seats in the Panchayat polls in future." BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee said the party's average winning margin stands at 97 per cent.

The opposition CPI(M), however, termed the poll verdict as “an alarm call' for the ruling dispensation as the saffron party faced tough fight in those areas where the opposition parties managed to field candidates.

"One CPI(M) candidate of Zilla Parishad was killed at Rajnagar in South Tripura district by the ruling party’s goons. Despite winning 71 per cent seats, the ruling party terrorized workers of the opposition parties during the election and counting process," Leader of the Opposition in the Tripura Assembly Jitendra Chaudhury said.

The BJP faced strong resistance and defeat in the areas where the opposition could field candidates, the CPI(M) leader claimed.