LS polls: Tripura Congress chief to take on ex-CM Biplab Kumar Deb

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Asish Kumar Saha will take on BJP candidate and former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb from Tripura West constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Saha's candidacy was announced by the AICC in the first list of 39 Lok Sabha candidates. Biplab Kumar Deb's name was included in the first list announced by the BJP's Parliamentary board earlier.

Saha won the 2013 Assembly elections as a Congress candidate from Bardowali constituency and later joined the Trinamool Congress in 2016. In the subsequent assembly elections held in 2018, he won from Bardowali seat as a BJP candidate. He then resigned as MLA and returned to the Congress.

In the 2023 Assembly polls, he was defeated by Tripura chief minister Manik Saha.

Saha emphasised that as part of the INDIA opposition bloc, the Congress will contest the Lok Sabha polls in collaboration with the CPI(M). With the Congress announcing its candidate in the West seat, the CPM is expected to field a candidate in the Tripura East constituency, a seat reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.

"We want to strengthen the unity of all opposition political parties against the BJP and appeal to all political forces to unite against the saffron camp to save democracy," he told reporters.

Saha clarified that the understanding between the Congress and CPI(M) as INDIA alliance partners extends to the state as well.

Regarding seat sharing with Congress in Tripura, veteran communist leader and former chief minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar affirmed that their party is against the BJP and is in favour of uniting the entire opposition. He added, "Our doors are open for discussion."