As announced by the Election Commission, the by-poll to the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Tripura will take place on Thursday (Sep 22, 2022). Total two candidates are in the contest.
While the ruling BJP fielded former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for the Rajya Sabha seat, the Left Front nominated former minister Bhanulal Saha.
The Rajya Sabha by-poll was necessitated after Dr Manik Saha – earlier, Dr Saha was elected in RS Poll from Tripura – became Chief Minister and subsequently won Assembly by-polls.
With the composition of the Ruling and Opposition party MLAs, Deb’s victory is just a matter of formal announcement since there are almost no chances of cross-voting, according to party sources.
BJP has 36 MLAs and its ally IPFT has seven MLAs – the ruling coalition has 43 MLAs. On the other side, the strength of the Opposition Left Front is 15 while Congress has one MLA – total 16 MLAs – in the 60-member Tripura Legislative Assembly. One seat fell vacant after Brishaketu Debbarma’s MLAship was cancelled.
Even as victory of BJP’s Biplab Kumar Deb is almost certain, Tripura Pradesh BJP held a crucial meeting in Agartala on Wednesday evening.
Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha chaired the important meeting with the BJP and IPFT legislators on Wednesday evening in Agartala to discuss the strategy for the by-poll. The former Chief Minister and BJP nominee Biplab Kumar Deb also attended the meeting.
Newly-appointed party’s Tripura prabhari Dr. Mahesh Sharma and North East co-ordinator Sambit Patra were also present in the meeting.
Tripura Chief Minister wished good luck to Biplab Kumar Deb and commented victory of Deb is just a matter of time.
