Over 10 workers or supporters of the ruling BJP were injured while the Left Front-Congress alliance said several of their workers were also injured.

As voting continued for several hours past the poll hours in 125 polling stations owing to long queues, both BJP and the Opposition said their supporters had been attacked in parts of Agartala, Majlishpur, Bishalgarh, Belonia, Udaipur and some other places.

Speaking to the indianexpress.com, a senior police officer said at least eight incidents of violence occurred. “Most incidents were at Bishalgarh in Sepahijala district and several parts of Agartala. We don’t have details of injured persons, but there were a few incidents today as well. FIRs are being registered in a few cases,” he said Saturday.

Former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who visited four injured BJP supporters at Agatala’s Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital. “Four of our supporters were seriously injured. Attacks occurred at Bishalgarh, Dhanpur, Kathalia, Agartala etc. Frustrated communist party and Congress supporters attacked them. Even little children were not spared. I’m sure the Election Commission will take necessary steps,” he said.

Deb alleged that BJP supporters were attacked in at least 10-15 places by CPM and Congress goons.

“We have five BJP supporters admitted to the GBP Hospital, one at the Tripura Medical College & Dr B R Ambedkar Teaching Hospital, three at the ILS Hospital and two others at Belonia in South Tripura. We don’t have full figures yet, but 10-12 people sustained injuries in post-poll violence and are in hospitals now,” the Rajya Sabha member said.

Deb said FIRs were being registered over the assaults in Agartala and that one person was arrested.

Papia Dutta, BJP candidate in Agartala, accused sitting Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman of plotting an attack on BJP supporters at a residential colony, Swami Vivekananda Awasan. She led a group of BJP supporters who gheraoed the New Capital Complex police station, close to the secretariat and the Assembly building, demanding the arrest of seven people over the incident.

Dutta alleged that the Congress MLA had turned the residential colony into a “Pak-occupied Kashmir” as “CPM-backed goons” from outside the constituency locked the residential colony for hours.

“After elections, our party workers were tired and had gone back home, but these goons attacked our supporters like Litan Modak, his wife, and Bikash and Palash—both BJP activists. Women and little children were not spared in the assault. Our boys were beaten up and are now hospitalised. We have filed a complaint. We will not budge from here if swift action is not taken,” the BJP state general secretary said.

The BJP supporters later ended their protest after police gave them assurances.

Earlier, a gathering of Congress supporters accompanied by a few people with bandages on their heads and wrists turned up at the same police station in Agartala and lodged a complaint against BJP supporters for allegedly perpetrating post-poll violence on Congress activists.

Senior CPM leader Krishna Rakshit, who joined Barman at the police station, said, “After elections, some BJP supporters launched an attack on Barman’s polling agents. We have lodged an FIR against them.”

Barman said there were a few goons staying inside Vivekananda Awasan. “They asked voters not to vote for me and instructed a polling agent of our party not to discharge his duty. But the voters cast their vote and the agent did his duty. Some of these goons turned up drunk at the colony at 9-10pm yesterday, hit a person on the head with a broken bottle and assaulted several others,” the Congress leader alleged.

Barman said that police arrived at the colony shortly and arrested one of the alleged attackers, Litan Modak, who was later admitted to be a BJP supporter by Dutta.

“For reasons unknown to us, he was admitted to hospital later,” Barman said, adding that a Congress polling agent “who along with his wife was attacked by the BJP goons” was also arrested.

Barman also said that bombs were hurled, shops destroyed and people intimidated at Majlishpur, Bishalgarh, Agartala and several areas of the state after the poll hours.

Security was stepped up at Vivekananda Awasan on Saturday with Tripura State Rifles and central armed police force jawans standing guard and patrolling the residential colony that houses 256 families. Built by the government over a decade ago, it was primarily meant to rehabilitate slum dwellers.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Ratna Chauhan, a 31-year old resident of the colony, said two or three “outsiders” entered it and tried to prevent its residents from voting. One of the residents was assaulted and he sustained head injuries, Ratna said, adding that a group of female residents then retaliated beating up the attackers.

“There is a security deployment here. But the situation is not good at all here. We are very tense with our children. We have not eaten and slept properly for a few days. People were coming to our colony offering cash and doles before the polls. We were scared we would be attacked as well,” she said.

A few other residents of the colony declined to talk to the media.

Earlier in the morning, Chief Minister Saha congratulated voters for a “peaceful poll process” and alleged that the Congress and the CPM had tried to instigate violence during and after the polls. “They want to live with violence. We want to exit this culture. Compared with the last election, polls were way more peaceful,” he said.

Incidents of pre-poll violence were found to have drastically fallen this time, from over 370 complaints in 2018 to around 150. Sources in the chief electoral officer’s office said that steps were being taken to address post-poll violence.