Amidst tight security, polling for the by-elections in Tripura's two assembly constituencies of 20-Boxanagar and 23-Dhanpur begins with peaceful note from morning 7 AM in 110 polling booths across both constituencies and over 86 percent voter turnout recorded till the completion of voting process, which has been by and large peaceful barring some stray incidents of violence and rigging.

Till the completion of voting process, the 20-Boxanagar seat recorded turnout at 89.2% and 23-Dhanpur assembly constituency recorded turnout of 83.92%, out of total voters of 93,495 in both constituencies.

Official sources said that no major untoward incident was reported from the two Assembly segments in Sepahijala district, reports of clashes among the supporters of two rival parties and few injured persons were also admitted to GB Hospital.

However, the CPI-M state Secretary Jitendra Choudhury claimed that due to the threats and intimidation of the ruling BJP cadres, the party’s polling agents could not operate in more than 90% of the 110 polling stations in the two seats.

 Men and women in large numbers queued up in front of polling stations before polling began at 7 AM, which continued up to at 4 PM without any break.

In all, 93,495 voters, including 45, 222 female electorate, are eligible to cast their votes in 110 polling stations to decide the electoral fortune of eight candidates, four each in two seats.

The ruling party, however, denied the accusations. For the first time in over five years, a direct contest is being witnessed between the ruling BJP and the opposition CPI (M) led Left Front. The Congress and the Tipra Motha Party (TMP), the other two opposition parties in the state, had announced not to field candidates in the two seats to stop division of anti-BJP votes

The leaders of the Tipra-Motha declared not to support the BJP or the CPI (M) in the by-elections, leaving the choice to the voters and party workers.

Congress leaders, including state Pradesh Congress president Ashish Kumar Saha, MLAs Sudip Roy Barman have campaigned for the CPI (M) candidates.

While, in order to strengthen the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A), comprising 28 anti-BJP parties, the Congress in Tripura supported the candidates of I.N.D.I.A alliance in the September 5th by-polls.

Ashish Kumar Saha said that the leaders of Congress along with opposition Tipra-Motha and CPI (M) had a meeting after announcement of by-polls and to finalize a strategy to stop the division of anti-BJP votes and Congress has decided and asked all party supporters and workers to cast their votes in favour of alliance candidates both in Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly constituencies.

The CPI (M) is happy that the Congress has campaigned in favour of I.N.D.I.A and that Motha has neither supported the BJP nor put up candidates, ensuring a one-on-one fight between the communist party against the BJP.

BJP's Tafajjal Hussain, who unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election in February, will take on CPI (M)’s Mizan Hussain in the minority-dominated Boxanagar constituency.

The CPI (M) had managed to retain the seat by a margin of 4,849 votes. Mizan is the third son of Boxanagar CPI (M) MLA Samsol Haque who passed away in July causing a vacancy.

On the other hand, Dhanpur is heading for a direct fight between BJP's Bindu Debnath and CPI (M)’s Kaushik Chanda. Political analysts said that two independent candidates who are in the battle are unlikely to make any impact.

The Dhanpur seat fell vacant after the resignation of Union Minister of state, Smt Pratima Bhowmik and in the last assembly elections; Smt Pramita Bhowmik secured a total of 19,148 votes and defeated her rival candidate Kaushik Chanda of CPI (M) 3,500 votes. CPI (M) candidate got 15,648 votes, while, Tipra-Motha candidate Amiya Dayal Noatia got 8,671 votes, which has played a crucial role to lose the strong bastion of CPI (M), which was represented by former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

Sepahijala, which has a population of around 5.42 lakh people in an area of 1043.04 sq km, is located just beside the Indo-Bangla international border and several parts of the two by-poll-bound constituencies have border villages. As many as 93,495 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypolls—43,087 in Boxanagar and 50,147 in Dhanpur. The electorate includes 160 service voters and 1,217 voters aged above 80, who can vote from their homes by using postal ballots.

Out of the total 110 polling stations, 59 polling stations in Dhanpur, nine were identified as “critical” and 19 others as “vulnerable” based on previous years’ records. In Boxanagar, nine of the 51 polling stations were marked “critical” and 15 others “vulnerable”, where double the number of paramilitary forces will be deployed, he said, adding around 2,500 CRPF and Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans have been deployed for the polls. According to political observers, the by-polls are an acid test for the ruling BJP, as the chances of division of opposition votes are negligible.