The BJP put up a spectacular show in Tripura on Saturday following a saffron surge in the northeast, thus marking the end of 25 years of Left rule. While the party is looking to the formation of coalition governments in Nagaland and Meghalaya in the face of hung verdicts.
The tribal-dominated party, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) has its ally as BJP and both were together leading in 39 out of 59 constituencies for which trends of results were available. Interestingly, the BJP single-handedly won 33 seats, two more than the half-way mark, while its ally was leading in seven. The IPFT has already bagged one seat.
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BJP had no MLAs in the outgoing assembly of Tripura. The party had polled just 1.5 percent votes in the 2013 elections and lost deposits in 49 of the 50 constituencies it contested. However, in 2018 assembly election the party had recorded a scintillating performance securing over 42 percent of votes.
While the Left Front, which had 50 seats in the last elections, had just won just 18 seats. The CPI-M-CPI alliance has polled over 44 percent of votes, about six percent less than the last elections. The CPI-M alone has polled 43.3 percent, one percent higher than the winning BJP.
Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who has been heading the Left Front government for the last 20 years, was ahead in Dhanpur constituency.
The BJP’s leading candidates included state party President Biplab Kumar Deb (Banamalipur), who could be the next Chief Minister of the state. The other winners are Sudip Roy Barman (Agartala), Ratanlal Nath (Mohanpur), A. Rampada Jamatia (Bagma), Dilip Kumar Das (Barjala), Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl (Karamchara), Ashish Kumar Saha (Bordowali), Ratan Chakraborty (Khayerpur), Atul Debbarma (Krishnapur) and Sushanta Chowdhury (Majlishpur).
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IPFT’s leading candidates included Narendra Chandra Debbarma (Takarjala), Mevar Kumar Jamatia (Asharambari) and Prashanta Debbarma (Ramchandraghat).
“We are happy with the trends in Tripura where the BJP looks like forming a government with 40 or more seats,” BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav told reporters in Agartala.
He conceded that the CPI-M gave a good fight but people voted for change to throw up “a revolutionary verdict, a historic verdict”.
The Congress, which had 10 members in the outgoing assembly, failed to even open its account this time. Many of its candidates may even lose their deposits.
Among the notable Left candidates trailing were sitting Tribal Welfare Minister Aghore Debbarma (Asharambari), Forest and Rural Development Minister Narensh Chandra Jamatia (Bagma), Deputy Speaker Pabitra Kar (Khayerpur), Bijay Laxmi Sinha (Kamalpur), Samiran Malakar (Pabiachara), Manoranjan Debbarma (Mandai Bazar), Ratan Das (Ramnagar), Manindra Chandra Das (Kalyanpur-Promodnagar) and Chief Whip Basudeb Majumder (Belonia).
Among the Left Front’s leading candidates were Health and PWD Minister Badal Choudhury (Hrishamukh), Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty (Chandipur), Information, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhanulal Saha (Bishalgarh), Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Sahid Chowdhury, Assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debbarma and Jail Minister Manindra Reang.
A total of 290 candidates, including 23 women of the ruling CPI-M, Communist Party of India, BJP and Congress and many independents, were in the fray.
Polling in Charilam (reserved for the tribals) was deferred to March 12 after CPI-M candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma died a week before the February 18 polls.
Over 92 per cent (excluding 50,700 postal ballots) of Tripura’s over 25 lakh voters cast their votes on February 18, setting a new record in India’s electoral history.