BJP candidate dies of dog bite

AGARTALA - A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) elections died Sunday after being bitten by a stray dog last week, an official said.

According to a state Election Commission official, a stray dog had last week bitten Ranjit Jamatia, 48, contesting the May 3 elections to the TTAADC as a BJP nominee, and the tribal leader died at a government hospital in southern Tripura.

“Following the death of the candidate, the commission has postponed the election in the Maharani-Chellagang TTAADC constituency,” the official added.

In all 162 aspirants, including 10 women candidates, are contesting the 30-seat - 28 elective, two nominated - TTAADC polls.

The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front, Congress and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) have fielded candidates for all the 28 elective seats.

The BJP and Trinamool Congress have also put up candidates for 22 and 13 seats, respectively, while 43 independent candidates are also in the fray.

The politically important constitutional body, TTAADC facilitates the socio-economic development of the tribals, who constitute one third of Tripura’s 3.5 million population.

The council, which has jurisdiction over two-thirds of the state’s geographical area, was constituted in 1985 after amending the Sixth Schedule of the Indian constitution.

State Election Commissioner Yash Pal Singh said: “We have sought additional 30 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF) from the Union home ministry. Besides, the CPMF currently deployed in the state would also be posted in the interior and remote areas to foil any subversive attempts by separatist outfits.”