Agartala: Around 17,000 Bru voters are found to be eligible to cast their votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to the two parliamentary constituencies of Tripura, Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agarwal informed the media persons on Tuesday.
Briefing the media persons in Agartala, Agarwal said, “A little over 12,000 Bru voters have been resettled in the East Tripura parliamentary constituency, while the rest of the others have been given permanent settlement in the West Tripura parliamentary constituency.”
The process of resettlement of the internally displaced Brus has reached its last leg. “One auxiliary polling station is established at Kala Laogang area of Santirbazar subdivision in South Tripura district where the last batch of Bru migrants were resettled. During the assembly elections, auxiliary polling stations were set up in the 11 locations where the new settlements of the Brus came alive.
In August 2023, those polling stations were rationalized. Since the Kala Laogang settlement was created later, we have decided to set up an auxiliary polling station there,” the Chief Electoral Office clarified.
Around 35,000 Bru migrants were resettled in Tripura as per a quadripartite agreement signed in the year 2020. The Brus took shelter in Tripura back in 1997 fleeing ethnic violence in neighboring Mizoram.
Speaking on the total number of eligible electors, Agarwal said, “Near 1,000 new voters have been enrolled in the electoral rolls after the special summary revision conducted. The total number of voters as of date stands at 28,57,996 which was 28,56,925 in January. The process of enrollment shall continue till the last day of nomination filing.”
The number of voters in West Tripura stands at 14,62,875 while in East Tripura the total number of voters is reported to be 13,95,121. The number of first-time voters is 69,782.
The total number of polling stations including the auxiliary station is recorded to be 3,350. According to the Election Commission Data, the elector population ratio and gender ratio have also improved.
“During the 2023 assembly polls, the elector population ratio stood at 667 which has now soared to 675. Similarly, the gender ratio has now improved to 991 from 989 which indicates more women voters were added to the electoral rolls,” said Agarwal.
On the security front, Nodal officer GS Rao said, “As many as 70 companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces have already reached Tripura. They have already been deployed for area domination drives. More security forces are in transit who will take charge of security arrangements as the poll dates draw nearer.” According to the senior officials, the categorization of polling stations based on vulnerability and sensitivity was also done.
“Numbers of such polling stations are fluid and dynamic and hence the figure keeps changing,” Rao responded to a question on the exact number of such booths.
The elections in Tripura are slated on two phases. First phase of polling is scheduled on Aprile 19 while the second phase is going to be held on Aprile 26. The by-election to Ramnagar Assembly constituency is also slated with the first phase of Lok Sabha elections.
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