Tripura polls: Campaigning over, security deployed in state amid preparations for polling

Tripura Assembly Elections: Dates

Voting will be held on February 16, As per the official notification of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the counting of votes will take place on March 3.

Tripura Assembly Elections: Seats

Voting will be held in 3,328 polling stations in the state on Thursday. The unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tripura has 60 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

28.13 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. A total of 259 candidates are in the election race, out of which 20 are women.

Tripura Assembly Elections: Background

The BJP overturned twenty-five years of CPIM rule in Tripura during the 2018 assembly elections.

Apart from the ruling BJP and the CPIM-Congress alliance, the state of Tripura may also vote for another newly formed party – Tipra Motha, led by a former royal scion. Pradyot Manikya Debbarma,

Taking advantage of being more local than the national parties, Tipra Motha has promised to fight for a ‘Greater Tipraland’. Odia of Greater Tipperaland is a separate state for the indigenous people of the state.

Besides them, TMC has also entered the political scene of Tripura in the hope of uprooting the BJP rule in the state.

Tripura Assembly Elections: Who is contesting where?

The BJP is contesting on 55 assembly seats, its ally IPFT has fielded candidates on six seats, while one seat will see a friendly contest. BJP has fielded the maximum number of 12 women candidates.

CPI(M) is contesting on 47 seats And Congress is fighting on 13 seats.

TMC has fielded candidates on 28 seats and there are also 58 independent candidates.

The Tipra Motha have also pinned their hopes on the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which administers the Tipra-dominated areas of the state. The party won 18 out of 30 seats in the TTAADC. Tipra Motha is banking on its influence on 20 tribal-dominated seats in the 60-member Legislative Assembly. The party is contesting on 42 seats.

Tripura Assembly Elections: Big Players

During the campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda and a dozen Union ministers campaigned for the saffron party’s candidates.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, senior leaders Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat and Mohd Salim, former chief minister Manik Sarkar and party’s state secretary Jitendra Chowdhary campaigned for the party.

Congress leaders Adhir Chowdhury, Deepa Dasmunshi and AICC general secretary Ajay Kumar campaigned for the grand old party, but neither Rahul Gandhi nor Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the state for campaigning.

Former royal scion Pradyot Kishor Manikya Debbarma single-handedly campaigned for his Tipra Motha party.