Women wait to cast their votes outside a polling station in Agartala. (Press Trust of India)
Over 88 per cent of the 38,843 voters on Saturday cast their ballot in the by-election to the Manu assembly seat in Tripura, election commission officials said.
"Over 88 percent voters have cast their ballot in the by-election. The election was absolutely peaceful and smooth. There was no report of any untoward incident from anywhere," Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal told IANS.
He added that there was one complaint of electoral misconduct raised by a political party. "We have inquired into the complaint and it was found to be untrue," he said. "Voters, including women, were seen queuing up to exercise their franchise in most of the 46 polling stations in 38 places after balloting started at 7 am," he said.
Voting officially ended at 5 pm.
"Central Reserve Police Force and Tripura State Rifles personnel were deployed for smooth polling," poll returning officer Rajib Datta told IANS over phone from Sabroom, 135 km south of Agartala.
In Agartala over 38,000 voters include 18,929 women electorate, said Mr Jindal adding that two observers, 38 micro-observers and 230 polling personnel were appointed.
The by-poll was necessitated after former forest, industries and rural development minister Jitendra Chaudhary, who won from the Manu constituency five times on a Communist Party of India-Marxist ticket, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tripura East constituency.
Though there were six candidates in the fray, the main contest was between the ruling CPI-M candidate Pravat Chowdhury and Congress leader Mailafru Mog.
Mr Chowdhury, a graduate from the Nagaland University, recently resigned from a senior position in Tripura's agriculture department to contest the election.
Mr Mog has been a member of almost all non-Left parties at different times.
The BJP fielded Nirmal Kumar Tripura and the Trinamool Congress nominated Angthai Mog.
Two tribal-based local parties, the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, also fielded their contenders.