Agartala, Sept 8: Tripura’s long-awaited Village Committee elections have generated a high level of political activity, with nearly 11,000 candidates filing nominations for 4,597 seats across 587 Village Committees.

According to figures from the State Election Commission, 10,936 candidates have filed a total of 10,958 nomination papers for the elections, which are scheduled to be held on September 28.

The nomination figures also underline the intense competition among political parties, while the final seat-sharing equation among the ruling alliance partners- BJP, Tipra Motha and IPFT remains a key point of interest.

The Tipra Motha Party (TMP), which heads the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council, has filed the highest number of nominations with 4,371, followed by the CPI(M) with 2,484 and the BJP with 1,974.

The IPFT has submitted nominations for 486 seats, while the Congress has entered the contest for 466 seats. Candidates outside the major political parties account for another 1,151 nominations.

With the nomination phase now over, the next stage of the electoral process will begin with scrutiny on September 9. Candidates will be allowed to withdraw their nominations until September 11.

Polling will take place on September 28, followed by counting on October 5. The entire election process is expected to be completed by October 8.

The VC elections will be held in 587 Village Committees spread across 52 Rural Development (RD) Blocks, covering a total of 4,597 seats.

A total of 9,61,977 voters have been included in the final electoral roll. The electorate comprises 4,82,041 men, 4,79,930 women and six third-gender voters.

The State Election Commission has finalised 1,550 polling stations across Tripura to facilitate voting. Among the districts, Dhalai will have the highest number of polling stations at 299, while Unakoti will have the lowest with 92.

The commission is also preparing its manpower for the election, with around 8,500 polling personnel being deployed. In addition, 231 Assistant Returning Officers and 373 Sector Officers have already been assigned election duties.

Election observers will be appointed in the respective blocks to oversee the conduct of the polls.

District Magistrates and Collectors of all eight districts have been designated as District Election Officers, while Block Development Officers of the 52 RD Blocks have been entrusted with responsibilities as Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers.

The Village Committee elections have been pending for several years. The tenure of the committees constituted in 2016 ended on March 8, 2021, but the elections could not be conducted as planned amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons.