CPI(M) had organised a protest dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on April 16 against the failure of Election Commission of India (ECI) in ensuring free and fair elections in Tripura. The polling for the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat saw large scale violence and rigging by the BJP. Election officials and observers and central forces were not seen in the booths that were “captured”. Further, polling agents of the opposition parties were expelled from most of the booths and CCTV cameras were also damaged to hide the misdeeds.

Dharna was addressed by Party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, sitting Lok Sabha MP and candidate of Tripura West seat, Shankar Prasad Datta, Delhi state secretary of the Party, K M Tiwari and Maimoona Mollah, Delhi state committee member. Shankar Prasad Datta explained in detail the barbaric methods used by the RSS-BJP machinery to ensure that people are not able to cast their vote. Failure of the BJP-led state government in fulfilling its pre-poll promises like providing employment, implementing recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, increasing MNREGA wages and old age pension has led to erosion of its support base. The terror tactics were used only to avoid their political defeat. Sitaram Yechury underlined that the struggle in defence of democracy in Tripura is intrinsically linked to the struggle in defence of secularism and democratic rights in the entire country.

The dharna reiterated the demand of repolling in 464 of the total 1,679 polling stations of West Tripura seat (where massive rigging was witnessed) and also pressed upon the ECI to take all necessary steps to ensure that free and fair polling happens for the East Tripura Lok Sabha seat.