Congress to contest Panchayat elections with full strength, make corruption main poll plank: Tripura PCC chief

Agartala (Tripura) [India], July 6 (ANI): Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Asish Kumar Saha on Saturday hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and accused it of using unfair means to wrest power in 94 per cent panchayat across the state in 2019.
Speaking exclusively to ANI after a meeting of the party's senior leaders, Saha said, "In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate didn't win elections through a democratic process. Instead of that, they wrest power riding on violence, intimidation and other unfair means."
"From the very beginning, we have been asking for arrangements for online submission of nomination papers as last year many of our candidates faced violence. Even proposers were roughed up when they turned up to file their nomination papers. Instead of receiving a circular from the Election Commission of India, the State Election Commission is not willing to make arrangements for online nomination submission," said Saha.
According to Saha, because of the large-scale violence, elections were conducted in only 14 per cent seats of the Panchayats.
Describing unfair elections as one of the key reasons behind alleged corruption in the Panchayat administration, Saha said, "The Social Audit is not being conducted in the Panchayats. There is a dedicated department that is supposed to conduct the audit but the government is intentionally delaying it. So far we know, that an audit was carried out in some selected Panchayats and the outcome was concerning."
"Corruption has crossed all limits in the village-level institutions. But, this time the situation is different. The Congress Party will fight the elections with full strength. Today, we reviewed the whole situation in a meeting attended by our block-level and district-level workers. The newly appointed Panchayat elections observers were also present in the meeting," asserted Saha.
On being asked about the equation with INDIA block partner CPIM, he said, "Panchayats are very local level institutions. The state leaders should not interfere in that. We have left the decision on block-level leaders to reach a consensus on seat sharing with CPIM."
Earlier on June 10, Tripura State Election Commissioner Saradindu Chaudhuri on Monday said that 2,650 polling stations have been identified and around 55 lakh ballot papers are to be printed for three-tier panchayat polls in Tripura.
The Tripura State Election Commissioner also said that approximately 12,95,086 voters across 35 blocks are eligible to vote in the upcoming panchayat polls.
Chaudhuri also said that the panchayat elections are going to be held in the last part of July or the first part of August as by August the present term (of the Panchayat) will be complete. (ANI)