The BJP, which fended off a spirited challenge from the Left Front-Congress alliance, looks set to return to power in Tripura with Chief Minister Manik Saha poised to defeat the anti-government authorities. Of the 60 seats, BJP candidates have won in five and are leading in 28 others and are allied with the IPFT in one, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) trends.
TIPRA debutant Motha has won four and is leading in eight seats, but his performance has been underwhelming compared to the hype he generated ahead of the February 16 election. His predominant role appears to have been as a spoiler, interfering with opposition votes in a number of seats, including Amarpur, Bagma and Bagbassa. The Left Front is currently leading with 11 seats and the Congress with three, meaning that the Left Front has lost somewhat since the 2018 polls when it won 16 seats on its own.
CM Manik Saha is leading from Town Bardowali constituency. Also leading from Dhanpur is union minister Pratima Bhoumik, widely speculated to be the BJP’s backup chief ministerial prospect. However, state BJP chief Rajeeb Bhattacharjee is lagging behind in Banamalipur.
The opposition alliance candidates in the lead include Jitendra Chaudhury of the CPIM in Sabroom and Sudip Roy Barman of the Congress in Agartala. Initial numbers suggest that Motha, led by former state Congress chief and scion of Tripura’s erstwhile royal family Pradyot Debbarma, could not make the kind of mark it sought even in the state’s 20 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs).
BJP ally IPFT has fielded candidates on six seats, Congress on 13 and Motha on 42. While Motha appears to have struck a chord with the opposition voter base in many of the state’s 22 non-tribal seats, even in traditional tribal strongholds like Charilam, Chawmanu and Krishnapur, the Motha candidate trailed behind the BJP candidate.
Charilam, where Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarma is contesting on a BJP ticket, is also where Pradyot dramatically announced on the last day of campaigning that he was addressing his last political rally.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC), meanwhile, has failed to open its account in Tripura despite several trips to the state by party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. The Trinamool candidate could not even cross the 1000 vote mark in most of the seats and the party may end up losing a lot of its deposits. In Ramnagar, where the party has fielded Pujan Biswas, son of its state president Pijush Kanti Biswas, BJP candidate Surajit Datta is currently leading.
BJP’s Manik Saha became chief minister only in May last year after the party took note of the impression that opposition was growing against then chief minister Biplab Deb, who is now a member of the upper house of parliament. Saha hit the ground running, completed pending development work and even managed to rope in the occasional dental practice to boost PR ratings. He won the bye-election in July 2022, but faced a tough challenge in the seat from alliance candidate Asish Kumar Saha.
