Tripura Election 2018: 55.94 per cent voter turnout till 1.00 pm

People cast vote at a polling booth in Tripura's Charilam constituency. Polling in the Charilam assembly seat was deferred following the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma due to cardiac arrest while campaigning on 11th February.

The party later fielded Palash Debbarma but withdrew the candidate, alleging post-poll violence by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which swept the polls in 59 of the total 60 seats on February 18. The BJP-IPFT combine secured 43 seats and ousted the Left Front from power in the state. The CPI(M) won 16 seats.

Jishnu Dev Varma, the newly elected deputy chief minister, is the BJP candidate for Charilam. He is up against the Arjun Debbarma of the Congress, Uma Shankar Debbarma of the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT), an independent candidate Jyoti Lal Debbarma.

More than 35,000 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the constituency. The counting of votes will be on March 15.

OneIndia News