Tripura Elections: BJP announces first list of 48 names, CM Manik Saha to contest from Bordowali

The ruling BJP has issued the names of 48 candidates for the Tripura election. State Chief Minister Manik Saha will contest from town Bordowali constituency, while the Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik will fight from Dhanpur, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) announced on Saturday.

The party will announce the name for the rest twelve seats later. The 60-seat Tripura assembly will go for polls on February 16.

Moboshar Ali, who joined the party yesterday, will contest from Kailashahar and state BJP chief Rajib Bhattacharjee from Banamalipur.



BJP yesterday organised a meeting of Central Election Committee (CEC) under the chairmanship of BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda. In the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and other members of the CEC were present.

Accordingly, the CEC has given its approval on the names for the upcoming assembly elections in 2023 in Tripura.

In Tripura, the BJP came to power with a two-third majority in 2018, ending the CPI(M)'s 20-year rule.

Nominations must be submitted by January 30. The counting of votes will happen on March 2.

The ruling BJP had swept the last elections in 2018, which ended the 25-year-long Left rule in the state. The BJP will be directly contesting against its ideological opponents, the Left parties in the northern eastern state.

Currently, the BJP has 33 MLAs, while its ally IPFT has 4. Communist Party of India (M) has 15, and the Congress one. Six seats are vacant. In 2018, the BJP won 36 seats with a vote share of 43.5 per cent, followed by the CPI(M) which got 16 seats with a 42.2 per cent vote share, while the IPFT bagged eight seats and a vote share of 7.5 per cent.

The elections in the state are likely to be a three-cornered contest this time unless the TIPRA Motha stitches any alliance with the BJP or the CPI(M)-Congress alliance.