Tripura polls: BJP announces 1st list of candidates, drops 6 MLAs

Agartala, Jan 28 (IANS) The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced its first list of 48 candidates, dropping six sitting MLAs and fielding 11 woman candidates.

A BJP leader said that they are now holding talks with their junior ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which has also been on parlays with the influential opposition tribal-based party Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) led by former royal scion Pradyot. Bikram Manikya Deb Barman.

According to the first list, Chief Minister Manik Saha, who was elected to the state assembly in the June last year by-elections after former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb was removed from the top post in May last year, would contest from the Bordowali seat.

Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik, who in 2018 assembly polls unsuccessfully contested against former Chief Minister and CPI-M leader Manik Sarkar, would seek election from the same Dhanpur constituency. Tripura state BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee would contest for the first time from Banamalipur seat, from where former Chief Minister and incumbent Rajya Sabha member Biplab Kumar Deb was elected in 2018 assembly polls.

CPI-M sitting MLA Moboshar Ali, who on Friday joined BJP in New Delhi, would contest from his old constituency Kailasahar in northern Tripura, from where he was elected to the state assembly for the first time on Left party ticket in 2018 polls.

The BJP did not give tickets to six sitting MLAs - Arun Chandra Bhowmik (Belonia), Biplab Ghosh (Matabari), Subhash Das (Nalchar), Mimi Majumder (Badharghat) Birendra Kishore Debbarma (Golaghati) and Parimal Debbarma (Ambasa). All the nine ministers including Chief Minister Manik Saha and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma got the party tickets from their respective constituencies.

However, the name of the candidate in Minister Ram Prasad Paul's constituency in Suryamaninagar was not announced in the first list.

Around 15 new faces found places in the first list of BJP candidates.

State BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee said that the second list of 12 names would be announced soon.

"We are now holding talks with our partner IPFT," he told IANS. The BJP's Central Election Committee in its meeting at the party's headquarters in New Delhi on Friday finalised candidates for the February 16 Tripura Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the meeting, which was chaired by party President J.P. Nadda.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik, CEC member Om Mathur, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Union Ministers Bhupendra Yadav, Satyanarayan Jatiya and Sarbananda Sonowal; Iqbal Singh Lalpura and Tripura election incharge Mahesh Sharma also participated the meeting.