The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) win in both Boxanagar and Dhanpur Assembly constituencies, where the by-polls were held on September 5, was considered a big victory as the saffron party was for the first time in 6 years, contesting against a united Opposition (I.N.D.I.Alliance) candidate. This time, all Opposition parties, including Congress and Trinamool Congress, supported the CPI(M) candidates in both constituencies.
The BJP fielded Tafajjal Hossain from Boxanagar and Bindu Debnath from Dhanpur constituency. CPI(M) fielded Mizan Hossein (Boxanagar) and Kaushik Chanda (Dhanpur) as I.N.D.I.Alliance candidates. Meanwhile, the Left Front opted out of the counting process, alleging extensive rigging during the voting process. They have asserted that the Election Commission of India (ECI) failed to implement adequate measures to curb this rigging. Ruling BJP said that the I.N.D.I.Alliance and CPI(M) knew the defeat before the counting begun and so they as usual levelled the rigging charges.
CM Manik Saha thanked the people of both the constituencies and said, “I thank the people of Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly constituencies for this landslide victory of Bharatiya Janata Party in the bye-polls. This victory represents the people’s continuous faith in PM Narendra Modi Ji and Bharatiya Janata Party. We shall continue to work to fulfil the people’s aspirations.”
BJP’s Tafajjal Hossain won with 34,146 votes, while Mizan Hossain of CPI(M) received 3,909 votes in Boxanagar constituency. In Dhanpur, BJP candidate Bindu Debnath won with a huge margin by getting 30,017 votes while Kaushik Chanda of CPI(M) received only 11,146 votes. After registering a high voter turnout in the Dhanpur and Boxanagar bypolls in Tripura on the voting day on September 5, counting of votes began on 8th September at 8 AM to the two crucial seats which saw a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition CPI-M.
Polling in both the constituencies concluded with a high voting percentage of 89 percent in Boxanagar and 84 percent in Dhanpur. Polling was held in a total of 51 polling stations at Boxanagar and another 59 polling stations at Dhanpur.
