A record number of candidates contesting the upcoming village committee elections under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council are set to win unopposed owing to the lack of rival nominations.

The State Election Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday that polling will not be held in 1,169 seats, accounting for one-third of the 4,597 seats across 587 village committees, because only solitary nominations have been received. The SEC said scrutiny of all the 10,958 nominations filed was conducted during the day.

Most of the candidates set to win unopposed belong to the Tipra Motha. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Tipra Motha, and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura had earlier announced that they would jointly contest the elections. However, the three parties have failed to arrive at a seat-sharing formula so far. A senior Minister said the alliance is nothing but an arrangement to keep the CPI(M) and the Congress at bay.

Contesting same seats

The Tipra Motha and the BJP have even fielded candidates for the same seats in several village committees. September 10 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

The SEC assured that the elections would be held in a peaceful manner on September 28. It added that the Ministry of Home Affairs has sanctioned 24 companies of Central forces to be deployed in sensitive areas in the State.