Election to the three-tier Gram Panchayats in Tripura will be held on August 8^th next and the vote will be counted on August 12, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Saradindu Chaudhuri announced on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference at Civil secretariat, Agartala on Wednesday afternoon, the SEC said that the formal statutory notification would be issued on Thursday and the last date of filing nominations is July 18 and these would be scrutinised next day.

The last date of withdrawal of candidatures is July 22. Chaudhuri said that the elections to 606 Gram Panchayats, 35 Panchayat Samitis and eight Zilla Parishads would be held through ballot boxes.

With 33 per cent reservation of seats for women, there are 6370 seats in 606 Gram Panchayats, 423 seats in 35 Panchayat Samitis and 116 seats in 8 Zilla Parishads.

The SEC said that around 13 lakh voters including over 6.35 women electorates are eligible to cast their votes in the local body elections.

Another official of the SEC said that about holding elections in 587 Village Committees (equivalent to Gram Panchayats) in Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) there is a case pending in the Tripura High Court about the Village Committees.

“We have learnt that the High Court would likely give a verdict about the pending case on Village Committees soon. After the High Court order, we would take necessary steps to hold the election in the Village Committees in TTAADC areas,” the official said.

In the last Panchayat elections held on July 27, 2019, the ruling BJP had won more than 95 per cent of the seats of which 86 per cent were unopposed, terming the entire election process as a ‘farce’ by the opposition CPI-M and the Congress.

 The opposition parties have been demanding to hold the panchayat elections with maximum security and to allow filling of nomination papers through email.