DA Editorial Desk | Dhruba Deka
Hardly had Tripura finished counting its Village Committee votes when the next test arrived. The State Election Commission has begun preparations for elections to 21 urban local bodies: the Agartala Municipal Corporation, 13 municipal councils and seven nagar panchayats. They cover about nine lakh residents, more than four lakh of them in the Agartala corporation area. The terms of all the bodies end on 9 December, and the Commission has fixed 15 October for the final electoral rolls.
The first thing to welcome is the effort to hold the polls on time. The hills waited a decade for their Village Committee elections, and it took the intervention of the courts to get them. Towns and cities should not need such a push. Elected civic bodies are the closest layer of government for people who depend on water, drains and roads.
The second point is the condition in which the polls will be held. The Village Committee elections were largely decided in the ruling alliance’s favour, but they also left troubling memories: tension and reports of violence at counting centres, repolling at three polling stations and a death reported from Tulashikhar. Urban Tripura has its own history. In the 2021 civic polls, the BJP won 217 of 222 seats, and the opposition alleged manipulation. The Supreme Court had to deal with petitions seeking to postpone counting.
That is why one early signal deserves attention. The Director General of Police, G.S. Rao, has indicated that central armed police forces will not be deployed, and that state police and the Tripura State Rifles will be “deployed adequately” to ensure free and fair polling. This may well be sufficient. But the decision places a heavy burden on the state’s forces and on the Commission. If any party raises doubts about security, the Commission should be ready to answer them in public, reassess the arrangement and explain its reasons.
Preparation should also go beyond policing. The Commission should publish polling station lists, ward boundaries and the poll schedule well in advance, so that every party and voter can plan. The final rolls on 15 October must be accurate. With the national dispute over electoral roll revision in the news, the Commission has every reason to make Tripura’s process transparent, with clear data on additions and deletions and a simple way for citizens to check their names.
Parties have duties too. The BJP, the CPI(M)-led Left and the Congress have begun selecting candidates. They should field candidates in every ward, and ruling and opposition workers alike should avoid intimidation.
Agartala and the smaller towns deserve councillors who are chosen by an informed and free electorate and who answer to it. The election dates are still to be announced. When they are, the standard should be clear: not merely a poll held before 9 December, but one whose result every citizen can trust.