Tripura Assembly polls: Electoral rolls show record improvement in gender ratio of electorate in state

Agartala: The final electoral rolls of Tripura published on Friday showed a record increase of the gender ratio in the state to 971 females to 1,000 males, Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti said in Agartala. “Though I have no exact data readily available, the sex ratio of Tripura (in the electoral rolls) is much higher than the national average and many states in India,” he told reporters after the publication of the final electoral rolls. [caption id=“attachment_3328524” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] In last year’s electoral rolls in Tripura, there were 965 female voters for every 1,000 males. On the basis of these final rolls, which would soon be formally handed over to the recognised national political parties, the crucial assembly elections in the Left-ruled Tripura will be held next month. After about a four-and-half-month-long summary revision of the voters’ list, the final rolls were published on Friday simultaneously across the state with 1 January, 2018, as qualifying date of age. “The Election Commission on Thursday has allowed the state Election Department to publish the final photo-affixed electoral rolls,” Taranikanti said. According to the final rolls, in all 2,569,216 voters including 1,265,785 females have been enrolled in the electoral rolls increasing by 2.52 percent voters from last year’s rolls. Around 34,845 names were deleted from the electoral rolls due to various reasons, including death and shifting of places. Over 47,800 first time voters under the age group of 18-19 years were included their names in the rolls. According to the draft electoral lists published on 24 August last year, the total number of voters in Tripura was 2,505,997 including 1,230,628 women. The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) in Tripura has condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) series of allegations to the Election Commission (EC) about inaccuracy in the voters’ list and alleged that the opposition party has tried to delay the election process aiming to promulgate President’s rule in the state. The BJP, however, has denied the allegations. A BJP delegation led by Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday met the EC and demanded to hold free and fair polls in Tripura. Tripura, the country’s second Left-ruled state after Kerala, will see assembly polls in February to elect its new state assembly. Two other northeastern states — Meghalaya and Nagaland, will have polling in the same period. The assemblies in Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland have 60 seats each. The five-year terms of the Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura assemblies would expire on 6, 13 and 14 March, respectively. The Election Commission (EC) led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AK Joti had visited all the three northeastern states earlier and reviewed the poll preparedness and also asked the state officials to ensure the conducive law and order situation for holding of assembly elections. While the Left Front holds power in Tripura, the Congress is in power in Meghalaya and the Naga People’s Front-led Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) is in Nagaland. The DAN is supported by the BJP. The poll panel already announced that the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine attached to the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) would be used in all the polling stations of the three states.