Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters take out a rally campaigning for the upcoming Tripura elections, in Agartala.
| Photo Credit: ANI
The BJP on Sunday nominated its women’s wing leader Papia Datta against Congress heavyweight Sudip Roy Barman for the prestigious 6-Agartala constituency in the upcoming Assembly polls in Tripura.
With this, the party has named its candidates in all the 55 seats it would be contesting this time. It had allotted five seats to ally IPFT (Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura) on Saturday.
Amid facing protests and resignation of disgruntled cadre and office-bearers across the State over some of the candidatures, the party became the first to complete the nominations for the February 16 polls.
On the other hand, the Opposition CPI(M)-Congress alliance and the TIPRA (Tipraha Indigenous Peoples Regional Alliance) are yet to complete their list of candidates.
AICC in-charge of Tripura Dr. Ajoy Kumar and senior State leaders held talks with the CPI(M) on Sunday to end the stalemate over finalising a joint list of candidates. However, the Congress later released its own list of 17 candidates after it refused to accept the left front’s 13-seat offer.
Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman had earlier said the CPI(M) should spare some more seats to have a durable alliance. The Left front, however, has already published a list of 47 candidates and most of them have filed nominations.
The TIPRA has released a list of 20 candidates that included six in general seats. The party, which had announced its intention to contest 40 seats, is expected to release a second list before Monday, the last day for filing nomination papers.
Reacting to the resentments over the selection of candidates, TIPRA Chairman Pradyot Kishore Debbarman warned against any move to put up rebel candidates against the declared nominees. He said he would personally campaign against such candidates.