People's Democracy

        Tripura Polling Marked With Festive Atmosphere

VOTING for the 14th Lok Sabha polls not only passed off peacefully in Tripura but also was marked with a festive atmosphere, particularly in the tribal belts and rural areas of the state. The turn out of 66 per cent was a rebuff to the boycott call given by the outlawed extremist organisation, the ATTF.

The CPI(M) state secretariat in a statement on April 23 hailed the state populace as well as the polling personnel and the security forces for ensuring a totally trouble-free polling exercise. The Party particularly lauded the tribals of the state for boldly defending their right to vote in the face of the terrorists attempts at intimidation. The Party expressed happiness at the return of the traditional carnival atmosphere of polling in the state after a gap of a few years.

The Left Front had swept the state with its enthusiastic poll campaign, which peaked in the final stages in the run up to these polls. In marked contrast, the Congress party ran a skeletal campaign, which included a signal ridiculous road show. Even on the day of the voting, the presence of the Congress, BJP, Trinamul Congress, and the INPT at the polling centres was dismal as they failed to find even polling agents at many centres, even when offered money. At several centers, it was found that the Congress and the BJP had exchanged their polling agents.

In the backdrop of the virtual dispersal of the NLFT, the state’s other outlawed extremist organisation, the ATTF, has, however, tried to continue its attempts to further the internal and international vested interests. At about 8.00 p m on April 18, a group of ATTF extremist raided a house at Jirania in the outskirts of Agartala and fired upon a sixty five years old non-tribal woman. She succumbed to the bullet wounds next day at a hospital. Significantly enough, immediately after this attack by extremists, a group of miscreants raided the adjacent tribal neighbourhood and grievously injured two tribal women who had to be hospitalised. Prompt action by the alert people and police prevented further damage. The ATTF extremists who had raised a vote-boycott call, had also been intimidating the tribal voters of certain assembly constituencies of west Tripura district for the past two days and had planned to carry out violent attacks on poling personnel and their security contingent. Acting on a tip off, the Assam Rifles jawans undertook a special operation at Mandai under Jirania police station, West Tripura. Following a severe exchange of fire, that ensured, the ATTF extremists made good their escape into a dense forest, but subsequent search into the upland’s spot by the jawans led to the recovery of a AK-47 rifle magazine, 29 rounds of bullets and huge quantities of materials for daily use. Huge stains of fresh blood was also traced by the jawans leading to the assumption that a minimum of a couple of extremists have been mortally wounded in the encounter.