BJP leader and former CM Tripura Biplab Kumar Deb offered prayers ahead of casting his vote in state assembly elections voting for which began at 7 am in early Thursday morning.
Deb, a Rajya Sabha MP, paid a visit to Mata Tripureshwari Temple to seek blessings before casting his vote.
Very recently, Deb was made Haryana state BJP in charge. Biplab Deb's popularity had earlier helped BJP to clean sweep the northeastern state marking a thumping victory in 2018. The 2018 victory overtook the Left's rule of 25 years in Tripura.
After taking oath as the 10th Chief Minister of Tripura on March 9, 2018, he stepped down from the state CM post on May 14 this year. He was then succeeded by Manik Saha who took oath as Tripura's Chief Minister on May 15.
Earlier, Chief Minister Manik Saha urged voters to turn out in big numbers and exercise their franchise after casting his vote at the polling booth.
Meanwhile, Tripura recorded 13.69 per cent voter turnout till 9 am in the ongoing polling for 60 Assembly seats, the Election Commission (EC) informed on Thursday.
Polling started at 7 am and will continue till 4 pm.
According to Election Commission, over 28.14 lakh electorates of which 14,15,233 are male voters, 13,99,289 are woman voters and 62 are of the third gender, are eligible to cast their franchise.
The voting is underway at 3,337 polling stations. Adequate security arrangements have been made for the polls. The state has 97 all-women-managed police stations. It has 94,815 voters in the 18-19 age group and 6,21,505 in the 22-29 age group. The highest number of voters is in the 40-59 age group at 9,81,089.
The fate of the 259 candidates will be sealed on 60 Assembly seats today.
A triangular contest is on the cards as Congress and CPIM, which have been arch rivals for years, stitched a pre-poll alliance to defeat the ruling BJP while the BJP which is looking to retain its power is contesting in alliance with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and the Tipra Motha which is being seen as a kingmaker in case of a hung assembly scenario, emerged as an influential regional party floated by the royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma in 2021. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress has also put up candidates for several seats.
( With inputs from ANI )
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