TIPRA Motha, a regional party founded by ‘Bubagra’ Pradyot Kishore Debbarma emerged as the main Opposition in Tripura with 13 seats in its kitty. After relegating to Opposition in 2018 election, Left Front further slipped down to the third position in the State.
TIPRA Motha has not only bagged second highest number of seats in the Tripura Assembly, one of its candidates, Subodh Debbarma defeated BJP’s heavyweight candidate cum Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma in Charilam Assembly Constituency by a margin of 858 votes. Subodh Debbarma polled 13657 votes whereas Dev Varma secured 12799 votes followed by Congress candidate’s 9627 votes.
In Takarjala Assembly Constituency, TIPRA Motha candidate Biswajit Kalai polled 34717 votes – 86.81% of – in all likelyhood, this is the highest number of votes polled by an individual.
TIPRA Motha candidate and deputy Chief Executive Member (Dy CEM) of the Tripura Tribal Area Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), Animesh Debbarma scored a huge victory over IPFT candidate Jayanti Debbarma, the daughter of IPFT supremo and minister late NC Debbarma in Asharambari Constituency. Animesh Debbarma polled 23838 votes while Jayanti Debbarma could secure only 5510 votes giving the former a victory by 18328 votes.
The emergence of TIPRA Motha pushed down the CPIM led Left Front into the third position. The alliance with Congress appears to be non beneficial as Left Front could not hold on its 2018 tally (16 seats) and registered victory only in 11 seats down by 5 seats compared to 2018.
CPIM, as per the seat sharing arrangements, gave away the Kailashahar seat to Congress from where Congress State Chief Birajit Sinha got elected. The party suffered defeat in Chandipur – which was held by ex-Minister Tapan Chakraborty. The latter did not contest this time, and BJP nominated candidate won the seat. In the Unakoti district, BJP won in four seats out of the five in the district and one seat – Kailashahar went to Birajit Sinha.
Another notable defeat for CPIM was the defeat of sitting CPIM MLA Bijita Sinha in Bagbasa. However, it managed to regain the Jubarajnagar that CPIM lost to BJP in 2022 June by polls.
