Tripura Panchayat Election: Ruling BJP won 70 per cent seats uncontested on the last date of withdrawal of nomination

The ruling BJP had yet another outstanding showing in the Panchayat elections in Tripura following the Lok Sabha election of 2024. On July 22, the deadline for withdrawing nominations for the August 8 elections, an election official stated that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had secured about 70 per cent of the seats in the state’s three-tier panchayat system without any opposition.

The panchayat system, which consists of zilla parishads, panchayat samitis, and gram panchayats, has 6,889 seats in total. The BJP won 4,805 of these seats without any opposition up till the day of nomination withdrawal. Since the BJP won 4,550 of the 6,370 gram panchayat seats without opposition, 71 per cent of the seats will not have elections. According to State Election Commission (SEC) Secretary Asit Kumar Das, the BJP has candidates in 1,809 of the 1,819 gram panchayat seats where voting will take place, the CPI(M) has nominations in 1,222 of the seats, and the Congress has candidates in 731 of the seats.

According to the state election commission, BJP ally Tipra Motha has put forward candidates for 138 seats. One seat in the Maheskhala Panchayat in the West Tripura district, where the BJP candidate passed away, will not have an immediate election. The BJP secured 235 seats, or 55 per cent of the 423 seats, in the panchayat samitis. 188 seats will now be up for election, according to the state election commission. The CPI(M) and Congress have fielded 148 and 98 candidates respectively, while the BJP has fielded candidates in all 188 seats. Eleven seats have had candidates fielded by the Tipra Motha, the official said.

According to the state election commission, the BJP won 20 of the 116 zilla parishad seats without a challenge, or roughly 17 per cent of the total. In the 96 zilla parishad seats where voting is scheduled, the BJP has fielded candidates in all the seats; The CPI(M) and Congress has fielded in 81 and 76 seats, respectively. August 8 is the planned date of the poll, and July 22 was the deadline for withdrawing from the race. On August 12, the votes will be tabulated. In the last elections, the BJP defeated all opponents to win 96 per cent of the seats in the three-tier panchayat system. It should be mentioned that BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in the Lok Sabha election 2024 defeating I.N.D.I Alliance candidates with huge margin in both Tripura East and West parliamentary constituencies.