GUWAHATI: The BJP on Saturday released the first list of its 48 candidates for the February 16 Tripura elections. The state has 60 seats.
It has the names of 11 women, including Union minister Pratima Bhowmik, and two Muslim candidates. Some 15 candidates are first-timers. The names of the candidates were finalised by the central leadership, BJP sources said.
The list does not have the names of six MLAs – Arun Chandra Bhowmik (Belonia), Biplab Ghosh (Matabari), Subhash Das (Nalchar), Mimi Majumder (Badharghat) Birendra Kishore Debbarma (Golaghati) and Parimal Debbarma (Ambasa).
Chief Minister Manik Saha, a dental surgeon, and Bhowmik, who is the Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, are two prominent candidates.
Saha will contest from the Town Bordowali seat. In May last year, the BJP replaced the then Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb with Saha, who was serving as a Rajya Sabha member. Subsequently, he got elected to the Assembly after winning a by-election.
Bhowmik, who rose through the ranks in the party, will contest from the Dhanpur seat. She had lost the last election in the seat to the then Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. The CPI-M biggie is not contesting this time.
CPI-M legislator Moboshar Ali, who joined the BJP in New Delhi on Friday, has been fielded from his pet Kailasahar seat in northern Tripura. State BJP chief Rajib Bhattacharjee will contest from Banamalipur. Former CM Deb, who is now a Rajya Sabha member, was elected from here in the 2018 polls.
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Bhattacharjee said the BJP’s second list of 12 candidates would be announced soon. He said the party was holding talks with the ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT). The state is ruled by the BJP-IPFT coalition.
In the past year, the two parties lost around ten MLAs to other parties, including the tribe-based TIPRA Motha which is influential in the 20 seats reserved for the tribals. An effort is on for IPFT’s merger with TIPRA Motha.