Voting for the by-elections to Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura's Sepahijala district is underway on Tuesday, amid heavy deployment of security personnel, an official said.

Polling began at 7 a.m. in 59 booths in Dhanpur assembly constituency and 51 in Boxanagar, and is scheduled to continue till 4 p.m.

BJP's Tafajjal Hussain, who unsuccessfully contested the last assembly election from Boxanagar, is contesting against CPI(M) nominee Mizan Hussain.

The Boxanagar assembly segment has 66 per cent minority voters of a total of 43,087 electors.

In the last assembly elections in February, the CPI(M) managed to retain the seat.

The Dhanpur assembly constituency, once considered a stronghold of the Left, will witness a fight between BJP's Bindu Debnath and Kaushik Debnath of CPI(M). There are 50,346 eligible voters.

The BJP won the seat for the first time in the assembly poll held seven months ago.

The Congress and the Tripra Motha did not field their candidates in the two seats for the bypolls.

The by-election to the Boxanagar constituency was necessitated by the death of CPI(M) MLA Samsul Haque.

Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik’s resignation as the MLA of Dhanpur necessitated the by-election to that seat.

The counting of votes will take place on September 8.

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