Agartala, Jul 18, 2022, TRIPURATIMES Desk
Agartala July 18: Voting for the Presidential election was completed at the Assembly lobby in Agartala on Monday. The polling started at 10 am and continued till 5pm.
MLAs of the ruling BJP, IPFT and opposition Political parties - Congress and CPI-M cast their votes in the polls. Among the 60 MLAs, 57 public representatives cast votes in the Assembly lobby today.
The ballot box for the 16th Presidential election will be deposited in the office of the Returning officer (Rajya Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi). The Ballot box will be taken to New Delhi from the strong room of Tripura Legislative Assembly tomorrow.
Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, ex-chief Minister Biplab Deb, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma Speaker Ratan Chakraborty, Chief Whip Kalyani Roy, Revenue Minister NC Debbarma of IPFT and other Ministers and MLAs from the ruling camp exercised their democratic rights. Tribal Welfare Minister Rampada Jamatia who is in Delhi did not cast vote here in Agartala
Among the opposition MLAs, all but Sudhan Das cast their votes today. Like Jamatia, Sudhan Das is also in Delhi and cast his vote there.
However, Brishaketu, who rendered his resignation from the Assembly but was yet to be accepted, skipped the poll.
Speaking to the media Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha told the media he is confident about a landslide victory of Draupadi Murmu, the NDA nominated candidate. Dr Saha added there is no chance of cross-voting in Tripura. He urged the opposition party MLAs to support and vote for Murmu as the first time an indigenous person was nominated as a candidate.
Deputy CM Jishnu Dev Varma said.” BJP has created history by nominating a candidate like Murmu for the post of President”. Jishnu thanked PM Narendra Modi for selecting Draupadi Murmu as the Presidential Candidate.
Leader of the opposition Manik Sarkar said this is the first election after BJP came into power in Tripura in 2018 in which all the voters could cast their votes. He, however, refrained from commenting on prospects either of Draupadi Murmu or Yashwant Sinha.
Lone Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman opined the Presidential election is crucial as it would decide the future of the democracy in the country.