AGARTALA: On the last day for withdrawal of nominations ahead of Tripura’s November 27 civic polls, the State Election Commission on Tuesday declared that allegations of forced withdrawal in Ambassa had no basis, a verdict the CPI(M) rejected within hours, describing instead an abduction and a string of armed visits to candidates’ homes that it said had broken its candidates’ resolve.
Addressing reporters in Agartala, State Election Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Chakravarty gave a detailed account of the day’s nomination process across the state’s 21 urban local bodies, which together have 345 seats.
He said 879 candidates had filed nominations by November 6, with the BJP fielding 345, the CPI(M) 263, the Congress 221, TIPRA Motha 15 and independents 35. Following scrutiny on November 7, 859 of these nominations were found valid, while 20 candidates’ papers were rejected, leaving 342 for the BJP, 251 for the CPI(M), 216 for the Congress, 15 for TIPRA Motha and 35 for independents and other parties.
Chakravarty said that by Tuesday’s deadline, 49 candidates had withdrawn their nominations, including 23 from the CPI(M), 15 from the Congress, five from TIPRA Motha and six from other parties, with the BJP recording no withdrawals. This left 810 candidates in the final contest: 342 from the BJP, 228 from the CPI(M), 201 from the Congress, 10 from TIPRA Motha and 29 independents and others. He added that five urban local bodies, Santirbazar Municipal Council, Mohanpur Municipal Council, Ranirbazar Municipal Council, Jirania Nagar Panchayat and Kamalpur Nagar Panchayat, would see no contest at all, with returning officers declaring candidates elected unopposed in those seats.
On the specific complaint of a forced nomination withdrawal in Ambassa, Chakravarty said the matter had been investigated by the district police superintendent and the district magistrate, who found that no such incident had taken place. He offered no further comment on the matter, saying the Commission’s position rested on the findings of the district administration.
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But in Ambassa itself, the CPI(M)’s sub-divisional committee told a very different story at its own press conference later on Tuesday. A party leader said all 15 candidates fielded by the Left in Ambassa Municipal Council had withdrawn their nominations, alleging that the move was made under duress after a sustained campaign of intimidation that the local committee said was unprecedented in the town’s history.
According to the CPI(M), trouble began on Monday morning when its candidate from ward number 9, Sujit Ghosh, was having tea at a shop in Chandraichhara around 10 AM when, the party alleged, miscreants arrived in around three vehicles, assaulted him and forced him into a car.
“We rushed to the spot and informed the police station. They came, but when we said our candidate had been abducted and needed to be rescued, they only said they would investigate,” a party leader said. By the time Ghosh was released, the party alleged, his nomination had already been withdrawn, and he had been pressured into telling officials that he was quitting the race for health reasons. “He told us the people who kidnapped him were all outsiders, that he did not recognise any of them,” the leader said.
The party alleged that the intimidation spread after evening, with armed men visiting the home of ward 4 candidate Kajal Dev and threatening his family with “consequences” if the nomination was not withdrawn by noon on November 10. Similar visits followed at the homes of local leader Pradip Sahu and candidates Kanai Pal and Biplab Das, with the party alleging vandalism at Pal’s residence.
“This is just the trailer we’ve shown you. The real picture will begin after 12 noon tomorrow,” the leader quoted the alleged intruders as saying, describing them as masked and helmeted men who spoke in Hindi and broken Bengali.
The leader said the matter was reported to the officer in charge of the local police station and to the Sub-Divisional Police Officer, and that emails were sent on Tuesday evening to the Tripura State Election Commission, the district election officer and the Leader of Opposition seeking security for the candidates. “Till this morning, no one from the police came to any of our candidates’ homes to ask if there was any threat,” the leader alleged, a claim that stood in contrast to the Commission’s assertion that the complaint had been duly examined and found baseless.
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A woman leader of the party said the decision to withdraw was taken to protect supporters, not out of fear for themselves. “Many have been calling since morning, asking if democracy still exists. Yes, we have the right to protest. But if I protest, ten others behind me will suffer for it. We don’t want that,” she said. “So without regret, keeping peace above everything, we decided together to withdraw. If there is more we must do for the people, even at the cost of ourselves, we will do that too.”
Senior CPI(M) leader and former MLA Anjan Das, addressing the same press conference, said the Left’s strong showing in the nomination process had alarmed the ruling party. “It was clear that Left Front candidates were set to win in all 15 wards. That was the real cause of fear for the ruling party,” he said, alleging that the BJP had engineered the intimidation to derail a free contest. He claimed no election in Tripura had been fair since 2018, and predicted a backlash at the ballot.
“This brutality by the ruling party in Ambassa Municipal Council and Kamalpur Nagar Panchayat will turn into a blessing for the Left Front in the days ahead,” he said, calling on voters to resist what he termed an attempt to reduce the election to a farce.
With both Ambassa Municipal Council and Kamalpur Nagar Panchayat figuring among the five local bodies the Commission listed as uncontested, the day closed with the state’s poll body and the principal Left party offering starkly different explanations for how the contest there came to an end.
