Tripura BJP seeks Tripura Chief Electoral Officer’s removal

Tripura BJP seeks removal of Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti and accused him of being a “conspirator”,

State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said that a six-member delegation led by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met Election Commission (EC) officials in Delhi and demanded that Taranikanti be replaced by another senior officer.

Bhattacharjee said that the CEO, during the Lok Sabha election to the Tripura West parliamentary seat on April 11, had directed election officials to “escort voters to the polling booths and their safe return at the behest of the CPI-M”.

“Not only the CEO, a section of officials in the state’s Election Department and in the districts acted in league with the CPI-M and the Congress. The CPI-M-led Left Front was in power in Tripura for 25 years consecutively. Hence, a large portion of the administrative machinery is still under their control,” Bhattacharjee told the media.

BJP leader and Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath told the media: “The CEO is one of the conspirators against the BJP. He helped the CPI-M and the Congress in the just concluded elections to the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Tripura.

“The Election Commission must remove the CEO immediately in the interest of democracy and the people of the state.”

Meanwhile, the opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Congress, have strongly condemned the BJP for making “unfounded charges” against the CEO.