28 companies of central forces sent to Tripura East

AGARTALA

: The Election Commission (EC) is leaving no stone to ensure there are no irregularities in the polls to the second Tripura seat on Tuesday.


The EC has sent

28 companies

of central paramilitary forces to Tripura East in addition to the 64 companies that had been deputed earlier. Besides, it has appointed two special police observers in addition to the existing observer, under whose watch security forces in the mountainous tribal-reserved

Lok Sabha

seat will be deployed for polling, chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti said.

However, the commission has not yet decided on the number of booths where repolling will be conducted even a week since the cases of disruptions came to light.

"The EC has been seriously scrutinizing all complaints raised after the first phase of

Lok Sabha polls

. Appropriate decisions will be taken as per law. Considering the demands of opposition parties and a few specific experiences in the polls to Tripura West, the EC has decided to provide security to agents of political parties, if sought," the CEO added.

After initial scrutiny into the allegations and reports from the special police observer, the EC has removed the security nodal officer and ADG of the state police Rajiv Singh.

Meanwhile, returning officer of Tripura West, Sandeep M Mahatme, has asked all of his 19 assistant returning officers (AROs) to lodge FIRs against those who have been identified as disrupters from CCTV footage. He has directed respective AROs to initiate proceedings against erring micro observers, presiding officers and polling staff for misconduct of voting in Tripura West.

Police reports said two persons were arrested in Debipur under Kamalasagar constituency of Sepahijala district on Friday night for their unlawful activities inside the polling booths during first phase.

The order stated the presiding officer, polling staff and micro observers of booth no 35 of Mohanpur constituency, booth no 3 of Kamalasagar constituency, booth no 14 of Charilam constituency, booth no 28 and 52 of Dhanpur constituency, booth no 18 of Kakrabon, booth no 26 of Rajnagar and booth no 50 of Belonia were found to be engaging in "indiscipline and misconduct during the elections".

"The government employees should not only be impartial but should also appear to be so in conduct of election ... The video footage of these eight places found some persons directly vitiating the poll process but it was not reported by the concerned officials," the order reads.