Agartala, Nov 24 (TIWN): Following the ensuing medical council election, only a vote ‘rigging’ session is going on under the shadow of Melarmath. This is the last edition of left front’s vote rigging culture in Tripura. The doctor’s society is experiencing a farce in the name of election, said Tripura Doctor’s Forum (TDF) leaders, today. They also alleged that the voters are not allowed to cast their votes in secret manner as there is no ballot boxes are available in the polling centre.

Allegation was raised against Joint Director of Medical Education- Dr. Manik Chowdhury also a candidate from CPI-(M) backed All Tripura Government Doctors’ Association (ATGDA) for pressurizing the junior doctors to cast vote through postal ballot paper in his presence.

All the junior doctors and post-graduate students were asked to collect postal ballot paper from the office of State Medical Council in the ground floor and to exercise their franchise in the office of Dr. Chowdhury, said a source.

It was also alleged that doctors from different hospitals- IGM, GBP and TMC including few sub-divisional hospitals near Agartala were provided vehicles officially and unofficially to attend the vote casting. Though maximum of the doctors were influenced by the ATGDA by the support of Melarmath, few voters left the place because of huge rigging.

To mitigate all the irregularities in medical council election, Tripura Doctor’s Forum (TDF) would move to the High Court of Tripura seeking judiciary intervention on tomorrow, said a communiqué inside TDF today.

It is to be mentioned here; Tripura Doctors’ Forum (TDF) filed a writ-petition at the High Court of Tripura on November 05, protesting against the cancellation of Dr. Dilip Kumar Das’s nomination paper (National Council) during the scrutiny.

A total of 1182 voters will decide the fate of 7 candidates for State Council and 1 contestant for National Council respectively. The ensuing election of Tripura State Medical Council (TSMC) is scheduled to be held onDecember 24 while the vote counting will be conducted on December 25 to December 27. The returning Officer will declare the election result on December 27.