Tripura Assembly polls: Key constituencies to watch out for in triangular fight

The 60-member Tripura Assembly goes to polls on Thursday. As many as 259 candidates, including 20 women, are in the fray.

Voting will be held from 7 am to 4 pm and the counting of votes will be done on 2 March.

Trinamool Congress, contesting 28 seats with 58 independent candidates, has also put up candidates on several seats.

In this triangular contest, the ruling BJP is fighting the elections in alliance with Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and are pitted against the Left-Congress alliance and TIPRA Motha, the newest regional party in the state.

The ruling BJP has fielded candidates in around 55 constituencies while IPFT is contesting six seats in the state.

A total of 12 women candidates are there in BJP. The Left Front is contesting 47 seats and the Congress party on 13 seats.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha is contesting the elections from Town Borodowali. The Congress party has fielded Ashish Kumar Saha against Saha.

The Tripura CM has replaced Biplab Kumar Deb as the state chief minister in May 2022. The state’s Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma is contesting from Charilam seat.

Meanwhile, BJP state president Rajiv Bhattacharjee is contesting from Banamalipur constituency. Former chief minister Biplab Deb had represented the seat earlier.

CPI(M) state general secretary Jitendra Choudhury is contesting from Sabroom constituency.

The BJP has fielded Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik from Dhanpur constituency. She is the first woman from Tripura and second woman from the Northeast to become a Union minister. 

Tipra Motha has fielded Amiya Dayal Noatia against Bhoumik in the seat.

BJP has fielded sitting MLA Pranajit Singh Roy from Radhakishorpur constituency. He is pitted against CPI-ML’s Partha Karmakar.

BJP’s Papiya Dutta will face Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman in Agartala.

In Karbook, CPI(M) candidate Priyamani Debbarma is contesting against BJP’s Ashim Tripura and Tipra Motha’s Sanjay Manik.

BJP won 36 seats in the assembly. The party got 43.59 per cent of the votes. The CPI (M) won 16 seats with 42.22 per cent vote share. The IPFT won eight seats and Congress could not open its account.

As many as 28,14,584 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 votes at 3,337 polling stations, the Election Commission’s data noted. 

Security arrangements have been tightened before for the elections. All poll personnel have reached their polling booths.

The BJP had stormed to power in the last polls in alliance with IPFT and had ousted the Left Front which had been in power in the border state for 35 years since 1978.

The BJP is expecting to improve its performance. Party’s top leaders including Prime Minster Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and party chief JP Nadda campaigning in the state.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath also campaigned in the state.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and senior party leaders Brinda Karat, Prakash Karat, Mohammad Salim and former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar campaigned for the party in Tripura.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Dipa Dasmunshi and Ajoy Kumar had campaigned from the Congress party.

With agency inputs