The Pradesh Congress has announced a statewide agitation in Tripura alleging large-scale vote theft and manipulation of the electoral process.

Addressing a press conference at the Pradesh Congress Bhavan on Monday, Pradesh Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha accused the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP-led government to curtail the constitutional rights of citizens. 

“The most surprising thing is that the Election Commission has joined hands with the government in a conspiracy to deprive people of their voting rights,” he alleged.

Saha said that the Congress is staging protests across the country against this trend, and as part of the nationwide programme, the Tripura unit will launch an intensive study of the voter list alongside a series of protests from August 22 to September 6.

The agitation will begin in Udaipur on August 22, followed by district-level activities across all nine districts of the state. The state-wide procession will be held in Agartala on August 30, where Congress leaders, workers, and supporters from across Tripura will take part. The movement will culminate in Kailashahar on September 6.

The Pradesh Congress chief also reiterated Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that since 2014, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has been “misusing administrative machinery, money, and muscle power to capture state elections.” He claimed that the ruling party has now turned the Election Commission into a “puppet and branch organization” to manipulate votes.

Saha further warned that no genuine voter in Tripura should be wrongfully identified as a foreign national during the electoral process.

Pradesh Youth Congress President Neelkamal Saha and Pradesh Mahila Congress President Sarbani Ghosh were also present at the press meet.