By Tanmoy Chakraborty
Agartala:
By bagging three out of the four seats in the bye-polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has yet again proved to be the strongest political force in Tripura, but the Congress, which thwarted BJP’s clean sweep by winning the 6-Agartala assembly constituency, has indicated a slight resurgence in the state.
The BJP had fielded its candidates from all the four seats, while Congress in three and managed to win one. The other opposition parties, be it the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) or the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) failed to win even a single seat. In fact, three of the four candidates fielded by the AITC forfeited their deposits – they couldn’t even secure 1/6 of the total number of valid votes cast in each constituency hence security deposits were confiscated by the Election Commission.
The saffron party had fielded new faces for the bye-election. However, CPI-M had trusted seasoned candidates who had been contesting from the same constituency since eons. However, in case of the Congress, the “emotions” of the people seemed to have worked well for Sudip Roy Barman.
Former BJP minister Roy Barman, who contested from Congress in 6-Agartala Assembly Constituency, received 17, 431 votes defeating BJP’s Ashok Sinha who secured 14, 268 votes.
While in 8-Town Bordowali Chief Minister Manik Saha bagged 17, 181 votes defeating Congress’s Asish Kumar Saha, who received 11, 077, in Jubarajnagar assembly constituency, BJP’s Malina Debnath received 18, 769 votes and Swapna Das Paul won the Surma seat with more than 10, 956 votes.
The results of the bye-elections are indicative of one thing that despite having “internecine squabble”, the saffron party emerged victorious because of a divided opposition, defeating the BJP was a task too tough to nail.
People have raised so many allegations about the way of work, and were somehow unhappy with the Congress candidate Asish Kumar Saha, who had won three times from 8-Town Bordowali but in case of chief minister Saha, a doctor by profession and a man with comparatively clean image, won from the seat as everyone at his home turf felt that since he is the chief minister, he would do good for the constituency if elected.
In the Surma assembly constituency, division in opposition votes and alleged malpractices helped BJP win the CPI-M stronghold.
But the result of the Jubarajnagar seat came as a surprise. It is hard to say how the BJP managed to win in the seat as since 1988, the last time when a candidate of Congress had won the seat, the constituency has been a Red bastion.
The results of the bypolls, however, don’t exactly reflect the prevailing mood of the public as allegations of the ruling government indulging in malpractices and violence marred any such indication that people of Tripura would like to give the saffron party yet another mandate in the upcoming 2023 assembly elections.
But, it, however, made one thing clear – a divided opposition can’t stop the BJP juggernaut in Tripura. And the slight resurgence of Congress is a definite indication that the opposition will work out some sort of an understanding for the assembly polls due in February next year to rule the roost in Tripura.