Agartala, Sep 19 (IANS): The State Election Commission (SEC) in Tripura has initiated the process to hold elections to 21 urban local bodies, including the Agartala Municipal Corporation, officials said here on Saturday.
A senior SEC official said that elections to the Agartala Municipal Corporation and 20 other urban local bodies have to be conducted by December this year.
Ahead of the upcoming elections to the Municipal and Nagar Panchayat areas, the SEC has released the draft list of polling stations. The draft list comprises 784 polling stations covering the Agartala Municipal Corporation, 13 Municipal Councils and seven Nagar Panchayats.
The Agartala Municipal Corporation has the highest number of polling stations, with 439. Among the Municipal Councils, Dharmanagar in North Tripura district has 45 polling stations, followed by Udaipur in Gomati district with 35. Amarpur, Panisagar and Sonamura have 13 polling stations each. Kamalpur, Bishramganj and Jirania have 11 polling stations each, while Sabroom has the lowest number, with nine polling stations.
The Commission will accept claims and objections to the draft list until September 21. The objections will be disposed of by September 23, while the final list of polling stations is scheduled to be published on September 25.
Around nine lakh people reside in the 21 urban local bodies spread across eight districts. Of them, more than four lakh reside in the Agartala Municipal Corporation areas.
The Agartala Municipality, which was later renamed the Agartala Municipal Corporation, was instituted in 1871 during the reign of erstwhile king Maharaja Chandra Manikya (1862-96).
The SEC official said that after the crucial September 28 elections to the Village Committees in the tribal areas of Tripura, the election process for the 21 urban local bodies would be further stepped up.
The SEC had earlier announced that elections to 4,597 seats in 2,634 constituencies covering 587 Village Committees — equivalent to Gram Panchayats in the non-tribal areas — would be held on September 28 after a gap of 10 years.
