AGARTALA, July 2 ? The ruling Left Front in Tripura has captured 156 village panchayats out of a total of 513 panchayats uncontested, according to official sources. The election is slated for July 18. The sources said that the Front also won five Panchayat Samities out of a total 23 by winning 80 out of a total 299 seats and six seats out of 82 in four Zila Parishads.
This picture emerged yesterday after the last date of withdrawal of candidates.Meanwhile, the president of the Tripura Pradesh Congress, Birajit Sinha, alleged that the ruling front had prevented Opposition candidates from filing nominations and let loose a reign of terror since Wednesday night throughout Tripura to put pressure on the candidates of the Congress to withdraw their candidature.
He alleged that despite lodging complaints the candidates, who could not file nominations, did not get redress from the state Election Commission and that many nominations of opposition candidates were rejected due to manipulation by a group of employees who are the supporters of the ruling front. Sinha alleged that the ruling CPI-M cadres entered the houses of Congress candidates on Wednesday night, beat them and threatened them with dire consequences if they did not withdraw their nominations.