Political Parties gear up ahead of By polls in Tripura

Agartala: Days after the Election Commission announced by-elections for four Assembly seats in Tripura on June 23, all political parties began the process of selecting candidates and finalising their electoral strategies.

According to political analysts, the by-elections in Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma, and Jubarajnagar assembly constituencies will be a multi-cornered contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition CPI-M-led Left parties, Congress, and the Trinamool Congress. A few smaller parties are also expected to run in the elections.

Separately on Thursday, leaders of the BJP, CPI-M, Trinamool Congress, and Congress stated that they will announce their candidates by May 30, when the Election Commission (EC) will issue statutory notifications and the process of filing nominations will begin.

Separately, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury, Trinamool Tripura state president Subal Bhowmik, and BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee stated  that they would not form an alliance with any other party in the by-elections.

The by-elections were necessitated  following the resignation of three BJP MLAs and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath.

Three MLAs, Sudip Roy Barman (Agartala), Ashis Kumar Saha (Town Bordowali), and Ashis Das (Surma), quit the BJP and assembly membership following disagreements with former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who also resigned on May 14 following the instructions of the party's Central leadership, the exact reason for which has yet to be disclosed.

Debnath was elected six times from the Jubarajnagar assembly constituency and served as Tripura assembly speaker on several occasions. He died on February 2 in Kolkata from kidney failure.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, who assumed charge on May 15, a day after Deb resigned, is expected to contest as a  BJP candidate from the Town Bordowali constituency because he is not a member of the state assembly.

According to the EC's schedule, the statutory notification will be issued on May 30, with the deadline for nominations being June 6.

The nominees will be scrutinised the following day. The deadline for withdrawing a nomination is June 9. On June 26, the votes will be counted.

Meanwhile, Chief electoral officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said on Thursday that adequate security arrangements will be made to ensure free and fair bypolls in Tripura's four Assembly segments.

According to the report, a total of 1,88,854 voters among which 93,567 men and 95,283 women will cast their vote on June 23 at 221 polling places.

The Election Commission announced the byelections on Wednesday, along with those in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Delhi.