New Delhi: Fending off a spirited challenge by the Left Front-Congress alliance, the BJP looks all set to return to power in Tripura with Chief Minister Manik Saha poised to beat anti-incumbency. Of the 60 seats, BJP candidates have won in five and are leading in 28 others and ally IPFT in one, according to trends by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Debutant TIPRA Motha has won four and is leading in eight seats but its performance has been underwhelming, compared to the hype it generated in the run-up to the 16 February election. Its predominant role seems to have been as a spoiler, cutting into the opposition votes in a number of seats including Amarpur, Bagma and Bagbassa. The Left Front is currently leading in 11 seats and the Congress in three, which means the Left Front has lost some ground since the 2018 polls when it won 16 seats on its own.
CM Manik Saha is leading from the Town Bardowali constituency. Union minister Pratima Bhoumik, who was widely speculated to be a backup chief ministerial prospect for the BJP, is also leading from Dhanpur. However, BJP state chief Rajeeb Bhattacharjee is trailing in Banamalipur.
Among candidates of the opposition alliance in the lead is CPIM’s Jitendra Chaudhury in Sabroom and Congress’s Sudip Roy Barman in Agartala.
Initial numbers suggest that the Motha, led by former state Congress chief and scion of the erstwhile royal family of Tripura Pradyot Debbarma, has failed to make the kind of mark it was aiming for even in the 20 seats reserved in the state for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
The IPFT, an ally of the BJP, had fielded candidates in six seats, Congress in 13 and Motha in 42.
While Motha seems to have cut into the opposition’s vote base in many of the 22 seats outside the state’s tribal-dominated areas, even in traditionally tribal strongholds such as Charilam, Chawmanu and Krishnapur, the Motha candidate was trailing the BJP candidate.
Charilam, where deputy chief minister Jishnu Debbarma is contesting on a BJP ticket, is also where Pradyot had made the dramatic announcement on the final day of campaigning that he was addressing his last political rally.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), meanwhile, failed to open its account in Tripura despite multiple trips of party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to the state. In most seats, the Trinamool candidate could not even cross the 1000-vote mark, and the party may end up losing many of its deposits. In Ramnagar, where the party fielded Pujan Biswas, son of its state president Pijush Kanti Biswas, BJP candidate Surajit Datta is currently leading.
Manik Saha of the BJP became the chief minister only in May last year after the party took note of the perception that there was growing resentment against the then-chief minister Biplab Deb, who is now a member of the Upper House of Parliament. Saha hit the ground running, finishing pending development work and even managing to throw in an occasional dental surgery to bolster PR ratings. He had won a bye-election in July 2022 but faced a tough challenge in the seat from alliance candidate Asish Kumar Saha.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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