Agartala, May 2 (IANS): The Election Commission on Thursday removed the returning officer of the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, where polling was held on April 11 in the first phase of elections.
"The Election Commission has removed Sandeep Mahatme, returning officer of the Tripura West seat and has appointed Tripura East's returning officer Vikas Singh in his place," an EC official told IANS.
Alleging large-scale rigging, booth capturing, intimidation and attacks on voters and polling agents by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members and their goons, the opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Congress had been demanding Mahatme's removal and re-poll in the constituency.
The EC order (a copy of which and available with IANS), issued by Secretary Arvind Anand, relieved Mahatme, District Magistrate of West Tripura, from election-related duties and asked Vikas Singh, District Magistrate of Dhalai, to join his new posting by Thursday.
According to the official, Tripura's Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti has been asked to send a panel of names by Thursday to be appointed the new District Magistrate of Dhalai.
Allegations of malpractices, intimidation and violence forced the EC to appoint former Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi as special observer for Tripura. "Zutshi had supervised the second phase (April 24 to April 26) of study of official reports, documents, video and webcasting footages of the poll process in the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency, the official said.
A decision on re-poll or fresh vote in the parliamentary constituency is pending with the EC.
The CEO had earlier said many middle ranking election officials were suspended and a large number of FIRs were filed by the Assistant Returning Officers against micro observers, presiding officers, polling officers and political activists who either indulged in malpractices or remained mute spectators during the polling.
The CPI-M led Left leaders held several demonstrations in Tripura and in New Delhi to press their demands.
Tripura Congress Vice-President Pijush Kanti Biswas said if the EC did not hold fresh votes in the Tripura West seat, his party would move the Supreme Court. "We have learnt that top BJP leaders in Delhi are influencing the EC to hold repoll in minimum polling stations to ensure their candidate's victory," Biswas said.
The BJP, however, dismissed the accusations terming them false and concocted and held rallies in the state alleging "conspiracy and slanderous campaign by the opposition CPI-M and the Congress."
Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Jishnu Dev Varma, who along with Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, led the protest rallies in Agartala, said the "CPI-M and the Congress have been hatching conspiracies against the state government as they lost the public support".
