Tripura Assembly polls: BJP to announce candidates today as Left, Congress join hands

The Left front has announced its candidates for 47 seats

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS The BJP, seeking a second consecutive term in Tripura, will announce its candidates for Tripura Assembly elections on Friday in its central election committee meeting. This comes as the state representatives met with BJP national leadership on Thursday.

Top leaders of the BJP, including party chief J P Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and others, held a meeting in Delhi late on Thursday to finalise candidates. The meeting was attended by Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, BJP's state incharge Mahesh Sharma and Rajya Sabha MP Biplab Deb.

This comes a day after the Left parties announced its candidates for elections, slated to be held on February 16. The Left will contest in 47 seats while its ally, the Congress, will contest in 13 seats. Of the 47, the CPM will contest for 43 seats, while other Left partners - CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc - will field one candidate each.

The Front has left one seat for Independent aspirant Puroshottyam Ray Barman, an advocate and human rights activist, Left Front convenor Narayan Kar said on Wednesday.

Eight sitting CPI(M) MLAs, including former chief minister Manik Sarkar, will not be in the fray this time. According to Kar, Sarkar chose to opt out despite requests from the party.

The Left Front has fielded 24 new faces this time. The poll manifesto, with plans and visions for the state, will be released soon, Kar added. The Congress too is likely to announce the candidates for 13 seats soon. 

However, though the Left parties tried to join hands with  regional outfit Tipra Motha, it failed after the latter stuck to its policy of a separate state.

CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Choudhury, the Left Front will not favour any proposal to bifurcate Tripura. "I spoke with Tipra Motha supremo (Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma) yesterday and tried to explain to him that the Left Front can go to great extents to empower indigenous people. We told him that the front is in favour of according more power and autonomy to Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. He, however, stuck to his demand for a separate state. The Left Front is completely against the idea of disintegrating Tripura's geography, culture and history," the senior CPI(M) leader added.

The last date for filling nominations is January 30. The counting of votes will be taken up on March 2. In 2018, the BJP formed the government for the first time in Tripura, ending the 20-year run of the CPM.