Opposition CPI (M) through letters to the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that opposition parties are facing many adversaries in Tripura while carrying out election campaigns.

CPI(M) state secretary and Leader of Opposition (LoP), Jitendra Chaudhury in his letter to the Chief Election Commission (CEC) alleged  that “in most of the Prayers seeking permission for rally or procession, the police allot us either odd hours or comparatively shorter duration for our campaign programmes. On many occasions, we were in trouble to carry on our scheduled campaign programme due to disruption caused by the BJP workers by playing sound system in a higher volume from a nearby point. The police don’t dare to interfere with the BJP workers.”

Chaudhury in his letter  said that where any of their meeting or procession is scheduled, the local BJP workers call upon bandh in the adjoining areas and compel the small and big shop-owners to shut their shutters and desert from the area. This happened at various places of 37-Hrishyamukh AC including Nalua. “In most of the places, the BJP leaders threaten the providers not to provide us with a sound system, chair etc. for our meeting. In some places, we had to address the masses without an audio system. On 11th April, at Manikbhander (45-Kamalpur AC area) the Audio system provider had to take back his equipment being threatened by the BJP leaders,”, said Chaudhury.

He said that compared to the huge number of flags, festoons, hoardings etc. the BJP is using in this election, the number of election materials of the INDIA Bloc is insignificantly few. But these are also being defaced, removed or destroyed. On the contrary, innumerable number of BJP campaign materials are being displayed at Khas land violating the “The Tripura Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1976” which is applicable during election also.

“BJP has opened up thousands of Booth Offices throughout the state. Many of these booth offices are constructed in Khas land which is contraband to the above Act. Very frequently you express your commitment to provide a ‘Level Playing Field’ to every stakeholder in the election. You would admit that the points I mentioned above ridicule this motto of the Commission at least in Tripura,” said Chaudhury in his letter.

He appealed to the Commission to verify his allegations and take appropriate corrective measures for the sake of free, fair and peaceful election in the state.