AGARTALA, Dec 8 (TIWN): Border along with Bangladesh has been sealed as Tripura’s 19 municipal bodies including Agartala Municipal Corporation will go to poll on Wednesday. Election in one Municipal Council is not taking place as CPI(M) led left front won it uncontested.

State Election Commissioner G.K. Rao on Monday informed that security measures were adequately planned and implemented for peaceful conduct of local elections. These include deployment of 6,600 security personnel, cataloging of all 657 polling stations on basis of security assessment and sealing of 856km border with Bangladesh.

Formal campaigning of political parties and candidates ended on Monday to comply with election rules. Ruling CPI(M) which is power in all municipalities except one  has made strident efforts to retain them with thumping majority.

Congress remains the traditional challenger to the left while BJP made significant progress in some areas. Both opposition parties however are in unison to charge CPI(M) of adopting pressure and threat tactics as well as engaging government machinery to capture the municipal bodies contested by 886 candidates - 429 of them women.

CPI(M), Congress and BJP leaders including Chief Minister Manik Sarkar were involved in hectic campaign for past two weeks. Senior BJP leaders from West Bengal including Rupa Ganguly and Rahul Sinha gave extra effort to party’s chances in some constituencies.