AGARTALA, August 05 (TIWN): The swearing in ceremony of the newly elected members of the Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samities and Zila Parishads will begin from tomorrow. A total 6109 members of Gram Panchayats would take oath from August 6-8 respectively at the headquarters of Block.

Senior officials of different government departments- PWD, District Administration, Agriculture, ARD, Fishery and DWS would administer the oath. The scheduled dates for altogether 116 members of Zilla Parishads of eight districts of Tripura of oath taking ceremony would be from August 12-14.Director of Panchayat Department would be administering the oath to the members while Principal Secretary of Panchayat Department would administer oath to Sabhadipati and Upa-sabhadipati.

The ruling CPIM retained its rural bastion by securing absolute majority in 275 of the 591 gram panchayats and 12 of the 35 Panchayat samitis, for which polls were held on July 15. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for the first time, secured a majority in one gram panchayat and won many seats in several other gram panchayats and panchayat samitis.

Over 90 percent of the 1.1 million electors cast their votes in the election to the three-tier gram panchayats in Left-ruled Tripura, deciding the political fate of 13,754 candidates, half of whom are women.

For the first time, 50 percent seats in gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads were reserved for women. Tripura currently has 591 gram panchayats (6,111 seats), 35 panchayat samitis (419 seats) and eight zilla parishads (116 seats). Voting was held for 5,129 seats in gram panchayats, 381 in panchayat samitis and 114 in zilla parishads.