Agartala, September 27 (Daily Kiran) : Agartala is gearing up for village committee elections on Monday, marking the first such polls in a decade. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is joining forces with its two tribal allies, the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), to contest the elections under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC). They will face opposition from the Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and the Congress party.
The TTAADC began functioning under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution on April 1, 1985, following the 49th amendment. It governs approximately two-thirds of Tripura’s 10,491 square kilometers, home to over 1.2 million residents, with around 84 percent belonging to tribal communities.
The campaign for the elections, which are equivalent to village councils in non-TTAADC areas, concluded on Saturday afternoon. Voting will take place from 7 AM to 4 PM on Monday.
A senior official from the Tripura State Election Commission (TSEC) reported that polling teams, consisting of about 7,200 government employees, have already been dispatched to remote and hilly areas.
To ensure a fair and peaceful election process across all eight districts, more than 15,000 central and state security personnel have been deployed. This includes approximately 74 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), comprising around 5,000 personnel, along with 10,000 members from the Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and Tripura Police.
The TSEC had previously announced that elections would be held for 4,597 seats across 587 village committees, which are equivalent to village councils in non-TTAADC and non-tribal areas. However, a TSEC official noted that TMP has already won 1,557 seats (33.87 percent) uncontested, while the BJP secured 81 seats (1.76 percent) without opposition.
Following the withdrawal of nominations by candidates from TMP, BJP, and CPI(M), a total of 9,820 candidates remain in the fray for the village committee elections, with voting set to occur for 2,954 seats across 44 out of 52 blocks in Tripura’s eight districts.
These elections are significant for local governance in tribal areas under the TTAADC, occurring after a decade-long gap. Since 2021, the Tipra Motha Party, led by Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, a member of the former royal family, has been managing the politically crucial 30-member TTAADC, which includes 28 elected members and two nominated by the state government.
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