Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed to people in Tripura to vote in “record numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy” and specially called on the youth of the northeastern state to exercise their franchise in the Assembly elections that began today amid tight security.

“Urging the people of Tripura to vote in record numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy. I especially call upon the youth to exercise their franchise,” tweeted PM Modi.

The Prime Minister had addressed two election rallies at Ambassa in the Dhalai district and the second at Gomati on February 11.

Polling began at 7 am and will continue till 4 pm today .

There is a triangular contest in this election with the Congress-CPM fighting in alliance and the Trinamool Congress has entered the race in the state and the third party is the Tipra Motha.

The BJP has declared candidates for 55 assembly seats while leaving the remaining five seats for its alliance, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT). The Left-Congress alliance has also declared its candidates for all 60 seats.

According to Election Commission, over 28.14 lakh electorates of which 14,15,233 are male voters, 13,99,289 are woman voters and 62 are of the third gender, are eligible to cast their franchise. The voting is underway at 3,337 polling stations.

Adequate security arrangements have been made for the polls. The state has 97 all-women-managed police stations. It has 94,815 voters in the 18-19 age group and 6,21,505 in the 22-29 age group. The highest number of voters are in the 40-59 age group at 9,81,089.

The fate of the 259 candidates will be sealed on 60 Assembly seats today.

Tripura is the first state to go to the polls this year. While polling for Nagaland and Meghalaya assemblies will be held on February 27, five more states face elections this year in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

The counting of votes will take place on March 2, coinciding with the date of the Meghalaya and Nagaland Assembly polls results.