Right ejects Left from Tripura  

Putting up a remarkable show, the BJP and its alliance partner, Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, surged ahead of the ruling CPI-M-led Left Front in the counting of votes for the 59 assembly constituencies in Tripura on Saturday.

Polling has been countermanded in one constituency of the 60-strong assembly following the death of a CPI(M) candidate a week before the February 18 polls.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) spearheaded LF, which has been ruling Tripura uninterruptedly for the past 25 years, is leading in 16 of the 40 seats for which trends are available at the time of writing.

The Bharatiya Janata Party candidates are leading in 19 seats, while nominees of the tribal-based party (IPFT) are occupying poll position in five constituencies after the first round of counting of votes.

It’s a remarkable performance by the BJP, which had got only around 1.5% votes in the assembly election five years back.

Left shocked by reversal in trends

The start of the day’s counting did not indicate the massive imminent victory for BJP-IPTF. Early trends showed the Left Front ahead in around 33 seats, over the majority mark of 31. It seemed the Left Front could be heading for a historic sixth term. Instead, it was the BJP which has made history in Tripura today. Outgoing CPI(M) Tripura CM Manik Sarkar saw his hopes dashed as the BJP-IPTF alliance came from behind to not only overtake the Left, but hand it a crushing defeat. Sarkar’s dream run as Chief Minister of Tripura for five consecutive terms, has come to an end today. A sea of saffron has drowned red Tripura.

Sitting CPI-M legislator and Tribal Welfare Minister Aghore Debbarma (Asharambari constituency), Deputy Speaker of the Tripura assembly Pabitra Kar (Khayerpur), Samiran Malakar (Pabiachara), Manoranjan Debbarma (Mandai Bazar), Ratan Das (Ramnagar), Manindra Chandra Das (Kalyanpur-Promodnagar) are among the notable Left candidates who are trailing.

Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar (Dhanpur constituency), Health and PWD Minister Badal Choudhury (Hrishamukh), Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty (Chandipur), BJP nominees Sudip Roy Barman (Agartala), Ratanlal Nath (Mohanpur) were leading over their rival candidates at the time of writing.

Reports are that BJP’s Tripura President Biplab Kumar Deb, who was leading in Banamalipur seat at the time of writing, could be next chief minister of Tripura.

With IANS inputs.