Tripura village committee polls on February 24

Polls to 587 village committees in Tripura would be held on February 24, the state election commission announced on Wednesday.

The village committees, falling in areas under the politically important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), are equivalent to gram panchayats outside the council areas.

State Election Commissioner G. Kameswara Rao told the media that elections for the 4,597 seats would be held on February 24.

Of the total seats, 4,018 are reserved for tribals, 180 for people from Scheduled Castes and 2,005 for women.

"Instead of Electronic Voting Machines, ballot boxes would be used for the polls. This is being done, according to the election laws of the TTAADC," said Rao, who was earlier the state chief secretary.

He said that in all 768,404 people, including 379,112 women, were eligible to cast their votes.

The statutory notifications for the polls would be issued on January 29.

Tripura's ruling Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) retained the 30-member tribal autonomous body for the third consecutive term in last year's elections.

After the formation of the TTAADC 34 years ago under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, its constitutional and legal powers were upgraded in August 1984 to protect and safeguard the political, economic and cultural interests of tribals, who constitute one-third of Tripura's 3.7 million population.

The TTAADC governs two-thirds of Tripura's 10,492 square km area.