Tripura to hold polls with 50 percent quota for women

AGARTALA - Tripura is the first state in northeastern India where elections to the urban local bodies would be held with 50 percent of seats reserved for women, officials said here Friday.

Except Tripura, no state among the eight northeastern states has amended the law to reserve 50 percent of seats for the women in urban local bodies, Gobinda Chandra Bhattacharjee, secretary of the state election commission, told IANS.

The politically important elections to the 15 “nagar panchayats” (urban local bodies) across Tripura and for the Agartala Municipal Council would be held in the second or third week of December.

Notifications for the election would be issued next month, Bhattacharjee said.

Currently the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front is holding the helm of affairs in all the 15 urban local bodies and Agartala Municipal Council.

The Tripura government in March this year amended the Tripura Municipal Act enhancing reservation for women in urban local bodies from 33 percent to 50 percent.

Tripura is the fifth state in India after Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh to provide for 50 percent reservation for women in local urban and rural bodies.