Agartala: Post-poll violence has taken a serious turn for the last three days across Tripura, as over a hundred people were injured, triggering tension.
According to a police report released on Saturday, the ruling and opposition parties have been accusing each other of terrorism and attacking supporters of their respective parties.
The violence began on Thursday, the previous night of the assembly elections, and gradually spiralled out of control. While the ruling BJP accused the opposition TIPRA Motha, CPI-M, and Congress of attacking its supporters in different districts, opposition leaders have made counter allegations against the respective local BJP candidates for mobilising their cadres.
There is no district hospital in the state where, on average, 8–10 people are not admitted due to political terror injuries. At least 22 people were admitted to the Agartala Govt. Medical College hospital in three days following poll-related violence. Kumarghat, Khowai, Teliamura, and different constituencies of Agartala, Bishalgarh, Sonamura, Udaipur, and Belonia witnessed the highest amount of violence during and after the election.
According to Chief Electoral Officer, Kiran Gitte, only five major incidents of violence were reported on the day of the poll, and police immediately registered cases and arrested the accused. However, following the election, the maximum number of central forces were wound up for poll-bound Meghalaya and Nagaland, taking advantage of miscreants from various political parties attacking each other, according to election officials.
The BJP supporters, led by candidate Papia Datta, demonstrated at the NCC police station on Friday afternoon in protest of the previous night’s attack on BJP workers at the Vivekananda residential complex in the city. They complained that Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman had been linked to the attack and demanded his arrest.
Furthermore, a gang of BJP miscreants allegedly attacked residents of a colony in Khowai town for voting for the CPI-M Congress alliance. A report from Sonamura alleged the rubber plantation of the former chief of Kalapania village panchayat was set on fire by BJP-backed miscreants for his active politics for the CPI-M during the election.
However, there was no arrest of the criminals involved in the attack on the election commission observer’s car on the day of the poll, preventing the election officials from returning with polled EVMs.
