By Firstdespatch Desk Aug 12, 2023
Agartala, Aug 12 (FD) The opposition political parties in Tripura are in parley to put up common candidates against the ruling BJP in the by-elections for the Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly constituencies in Sepahijala district to be held on September 5 this year.
The Dhanpur assembly constituency fell vacant after the Union Minister of state for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhowmick resigned as an elected MLA from the constituency on March 15 this year.
She contested from the constituency in the last state assembly elections held on Feb. 16 last.
The Boxanagar constituency fell vacant as the opposition CPI-M MLA, Samsul Haque died on July 19 last.
The leader of the opposition and prominent leader of Tipra Motha, Animesh Debbarma said the three major political parties including CPI-M and Congress are in touch for putting up common candidates to defeat ‘common political rival’ BJP in the upcoming elections.
“In the last assembly elections held in February this year the BJP managed to secure a majority due to some confusion among the opposition political parties. But this time we want to put up common candidates for the two constituencies as the chance is impressive to win in both constituencies. All the three political parties will meet tomorrow”, Debbarma told reporters here today.
Boxnagar Assembly constituency has 43,087 electors, while Dhanpur has 50,147 voters.
In the 2023 Assembly polls, Pratima Bhoumik of BJP polled 19148 votes (42.25%) and defeated her nearest candidate Kaushik Chanda of CPIM who secured 15648 votes (34.53%). The TMP candidate came third with 8671 votes (19.13%).
The result was different in Boxanagar where CPIM candidate Samsul Haque defeated his nearest BJP candidate Tafajjal Hossain. Haque secured 19404 votes (50.34%) while Hossain could manage 14555 votes (37.76%). Here also, the third position went to the TIPRA Motha Party candidate who polled 3010 votes (7.81%).
The Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), Asish Saha and former TPCC President Birajit Sinha said Congress wanted to defeat BJP and were willing to put up common candidates.
Sources in CPI-M said informal talks are on for common candidates and everything will take shape soon.
Meanwhile, Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Puneet Agarwal held a meeting with the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police on Thursday to discuss the arrangements for peaceful elections and security arrangements on Thursday last.
The notification for the by-election was issued on August 10 last.
Agarwal said the model code of conduct has come into effect only in poll-bound Sepahijala district. Each polling booth will be brought under webcasting to ensure transparent by-election.
So far no candidate has filed any nomination, which will end on August 17. The scrutiny will be on August 18 and the last date for withdrawal will be on August 21. The counting of votes will be held September 8. FD JK