The BJP on January 28 released the names of candidates for the Tripura assembly polls.
Voting in the northeastern State will take place on February 16.
According to the list of 48 candidates named, Chief Minister Manik Saha will contest from Town Bordowali in Agartala, while senior leader Rattan Lal Nath will contest from Mohanpur.
The Lotus party nominees include 11 women from 48 candidates in today’s list.
The party also retained State Minister Manoj Deb for the Kamalpur assembly segment even as there was a demand for a change of the party nominee this time.
From Dhanpur, wherein the CPI-M has dropped Chief Minister Manik Sarkar four times, the BJP will field Union Minister of State Pratima Bhowmick.
From Kailasahar, the BJP nominee will be sitting MLA (and former CPI-M leader) Md Moboshar Ali.
The former Marxist joined the BJP on January 27. From Banamalipur, which was contested by former Chief Minister Biplab Deb in 2018, the saffron party nominee will be Rajjev Bhattacharjee.
The BJP Central Election Committee held a meeting on January 27 in Delhi, which was presided over by BJP National President J P Nadda and attended, among others, by PM Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh and also BJP organisational general secretary B L Santhosh.
From Surma, the party has renominated Swapna Das Paul, who had won the recent by-election.
From Belonia, the BJP nominee, the party candidate will be Gautam Sarkar. Bishwabandhu Sen will be the BJP candidate from Dharmanagar. Another State Minister, Bhagaban Chandra Das, will be contesting from Pabiachhara (SC) seat.
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarma has been nominated for Charilam (ST) reserved seat. From the Pechartal assembly segment reserved for ST, the BJP nominee will be Santana Chakma.
Ms Himani Debbarma will be the party candidate from Golaghati.
Minarani Sarkar will be the BJP nominee from Badarghat.
Some of the ST reserved seats from where the last time the Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology (IPFT) fought the elections were kept vacant this time also. The BJP should have announced the candidates’ names from Surjyamaninagar and Agartala assembly constituencies. Surjyamaninagar is represented by Minister Ram Prasad Paul, while Agartala seat is represented by Congress stalwart Sudip Roy Barman, who had won on a BJP ticket in 2018.
Among the MLAs who were dropped by BJP this time was Mimi Majumdar from Badharghat (SC) seat, where Mina Rani Sarkar has been fielded. Arun Chandra Bhowmik from Belonia is also dropped from where Gautam Sarkar would fight the February 16 polls. From Nalchar’s (SC) seat, Subhash Chandra Das has been replaced by Kishore Barman. For Ampinagar (ST) seat was represented by BJP ally IPFT in the 2018 polls, but this time Patal Kanya Jamatia has been nominated by the Lotus party from this constituency.
Suchitra Debbarma was given the nomination from Ambassa replacing Parimal Debbarma.
Political observers feel with the marginalised Left and Congress deciding to come together and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress not making much penetration; it will be a comparatively easy contest for the BJP this time.
The communists dropped several top-ranking leaders, including four-time Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Badal Choudhary, Tapan Chakraborty and former Finance Minister Bhanulal Saha, in this year’s polls.
