By Firstdespatch Desk Jan 28, 2023
Agartala, Jan 28 (FD) After opposition CPIM, now ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced its first list of 48 candidates for the Tripura Assembly polls scheduled on February 16 next.
The state Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has been nominated as the party candidate from Town Bordowali while MP Lok Sabha from West Tripura Parliamentary constituency and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik have been fielded in Dhanpur constituency.
A total of 11 women out of 48 candidates have been given tickets as of now.
The party leaders Anil Baluni and Sambit Patra announced the BJP’s candidates for the Tripura assembly polls at a press conference in the party headquarters in Delhi.
Addressing the press conference, Patra who is also a national spokesman of the party said, BJP central election committee has decided to deny tickets to six sitting MLAs of the party this time.
“As decided by the BJP central election committee, six sitting MLAs have been denied tickets this time while multiple new faces have been inducted,” he added.
As per the list, BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee will fight from Banamalipur, the stronghold BJP from where former Chief Minister and sitting MP of Rajya Sabha, Biplab Kumar Deb had won in the 2018 elections.
The candidate list has been finalized on Friday in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda.
Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and top leaders of Tripura BJP also attended the meeting.
In the last assembly polls in 2018, the BJP for the first time had formed a government in Tripura, considered as the left bastion. Left front ruled the state unabated for 25 years.
Saha in a press conference here today said, the alliance with the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) will continue and they would be allotted five seats and the IPFT has agreed to their proposal. FD PD JK