For the election for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tripura, two candidates – BJP nominated DR Manik Saha and Left Front candidate Bhanu Lal Saha filed their nominations on Saturday, a day after announcements of their names by respective parties.
Polls for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tripura will be held on March 31 next and the results will be declared on the same day.
The BJP candidate is now serving as the Tripura unit president of the party while Left Front’s senior leader Bhanu Lal Saha is now an MLA from Bishalgarh constituency.
Speaking to the media after filing his nomination, Dr. Saha said he would try to highlight the important issues of the state to the notice of the central government through the Rajya Sabha.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb congratulated Dr. Saha for being nominated as the candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tripura.
Deb also extended gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president J.P. Nadda for giving Dr. Saha the opportunity.
“….His nomination is very special for all of us as BJP Tripura will be getting its first Rajya Sabha MP Soon. Much gratitude to Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji and BJP India President Shri JP. Nadda Ji for giving him this opportunity. I am sure, he will strive for the betterment of people with Hon’ble PM’s vision of #SabkaSathSabkaVikasSabkaVishwas,” Deb wrote in a Facebook post.
Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Verma, Union Minister of State Pratima Bhowmik, chief whip of assembly Kalyani Roy, two state general secretaries of BJP- Tinku Roy and Papia Dutta and many others accompanied Dr. Saha during the time of submitting nomination.
Meanwhile, there are 33 BJP MLAs, eight IPFT MLAs and 15 Left front MLAs in the 60-member Tripura Legislative Assembly.
The strength of BJP reduced from 36 to 33 following resignations of Sudip Roy Barman and Ashis Kumar Saha and disqualification of Ashis Das while one MLA of Left Front and former speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath passed away.
While Roy Barman and Saha then joined the Congress, Das switched over to Trinamool Congress. On the other hand the MLA-ship of IPFT’s Brishaketu Debbarma is hanging—he resigned as an MLA but the Speaker is yet to accept it.
