Congress, CPM won’t see significant transfer of votes, says MoS Pratima Bhoumik

Minister of state Pratima Bhoumik on Friday said the Congress and the Left parties in Tripura have entered into a seat-sharing arrangement for the assembly polls but there’s unlikely to be any significant transfer of votes between the two.

Bhoumik, who is in the ministry of social justice and empowerment, said the CPM and Congress in the state have been political opponents for decades. “They were engaged in bitter violence... While CPM votes may transfer to Congress, Congress’ votes will not get transferred to CPM,” she told ET.

The CPM has its candidates in 43 of the state’s 60 assembly seats, while the other Left Front constituents — the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI — are contesting one seat each. The Left Front is also supporting an independent candidate in the Ramnagar constituency.


The Congress is contesting on 13 seats, as per the seat-sharing agreement.Bhoumik who is a BJP Lok Sabha member from West Tripura constituency, is contesting the Dhanpur Assembly seat, which is seen as a Marxist citadel.

In 2018, she had lost to former chief minister Manik Sarkar.

Sarkar has represented the Dhanpur constituency five times. However, this time round, the CPM has fielded Kaushik Chanda, as Sarkar is not contesting.