60% voting recorded in Tripura LS polls (2nd Lead)

Around 60 per cent voting was recorded in the first seven hours of polling (up to 2 p.m.) on Thursday for the West Tripura parliamentary constituency in Tripura, election and police officials said.

No major incident except a clash between the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Charilam, in Sepahijala district, was reported, said an official.

Ten people were injured in the incident, said Police spokesman Subrata Chakraborty.

"At some places, people tried to prevent voters from voting but were thwarted by the security personnel," Chakraborty told IANS.

Voting was temporarily halted at some polling stations due to the malfunctioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, informed Election Commission officials.

The voting for one of the two parliamentary constituencies of Tripura began amidst heavy security at 7 a.m. and will end at 5 p.m.

A total of 13,47,381 electorate are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of 13 candidates.

A total of 1,679 polling stations, including 30 to be managed by only women polling officials and security personnel, have been set up.

The main contest is between BJP candidate Pratima Bhoumik, 50, Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front candidate Sankar Prasad Datta, 61, and Subal Bhowmik, 58, who quit the BJP's Vice-President's post and became the Congress aspirant last month.

--IANS

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