The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won three assembly seats and the Congress won one in the Tripura by-polls on Sunday, officials said.
Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Saha won the Twon Bardowali seat by a margin of 6,104 votes, having secured 17,181 votes.
Nearest rival Asish Kumar Saha of Congress won 11,077 votes. On the other hand, Congress’ Sudip Roy Barman won the Agartala seat by a margin of 3,163 votes, having secured 17,241 votes in total.
Nearest rival, BJP’s Ashok Sinha secured 14,268 votes or 35.57 per cent, according to the Election Commission.
After the Congress’ complete rout in the 2018 assembly elections, Barman became the only Congress MLA in the assembly.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) lost out on its stronghold of Jubarajnagar to the BJP by a margin of 4,572 votes with the BJP’s Malina Debnath securing 18,769 votes to CPI (M)’s Shailendra Chandra Nath who won 14,197 votes.
Moreover, BJP’s Swapna Das won in Surma with a total of 16,667 votes defeating nearest rival Baburam Satnami of the TIPRA Motha.
CM Saha thanked the people of the state for voting for the BJP. He said that the results reflected an understanding between the CPI (M) and the Congress.
He said, “The people who voted for us, I thank them. This is the victory of BJP workers. In Town Bardowali, I expected the margin to be a bit more. However, the results prove the understanding between the CPI(M) and Congress. We will work accordingly in the future, but people did not take this understanding in a good way.”
“We have seen post-poll violence in the state for many years, so we have urged the people to stay away from such a thing. People's trust is the main factor, and we have to see they don't face any problems. I would also request the opposition parties to maintain peace,” he added.
It may be noted that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) which was looking to make an entry into the northeastern state ahead of the elections, performed poorly with its candidates losing in the all the seats.
The counting of votes for the by-polls held on June 23, began today at around 8 am.
The by-elections were necessitated after former BJP MLAs Ashish Kumar Saha and Sudip Roy Barman resigned from the assembly to join the Congress in February.
In addition, by-polls for the Jubarajnagar seat was necessitated due to the death of CPI (M) MLA Ramendra Chandra Debnath, while in Surma, BJP MLA Asish Das was disqualified after rebelling against his party.
Following the results, the BJP now has 36 MLAs in the 60-member assembly with ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) having eight MLAs. The opposition, led by CPI (M) has 15 MLAs and the Congress now has one.
