Supporters of the ruling BJP in Tripura cheered the party’s announcement of candidates for by-polls in two Assembly Constituencies in Sepahijala District on Tuesday late night.

According to the party statement, Taffajal Hossain will contest from Boxanagar Constituency while Bindu Debnath will contest from Dhanpur Assembly Constituency.

Tripura’s Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha hailed the selection in a social media post on Wednesday and wrote, “In order to build “Unnat Tripura, Shrestha Tripura” under the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji, I call upon to ensure victories of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated candidates Shri Bindu Debnath and Shri Tafazzal Hussain to win the upcoming assembly by-elections in 23 Dhanpur and 20 Buxnagar assembly constituencies.”

In his reaction, State BJP president Rajib Bhattacharjee also exuded confidence in BJP candidates’ victory saying that people would vote for the BJP for its developmental and welfare activities under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tripura’s Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha.

By-polls at Boxanagar were necessitated after the death of sitting MLA Samsul Haque of CPIM. Dhanpur will go for by-polls as BJP’s victorious candidate Union MoS Pratima Bhoumik resigned.

According to the State Election Commission data, there are a total of 43,087 voters—22,166 males and 20,921 females under the 20-Boxonagar constituency. The number of service voters is 75 followed by 510 voters in 80+ age groups and 198 PwD voters. In 23- Dhanpur constituency, the total number of voters is 50,147. The figure included 25,944 males and 24,203 females. The number of service voters is 160, the number of 80+ voters is 1217 and the number of PwD voters is 463.

The announcement of party candidates brought cheers among the supporters in both constituencies. Party leaders expressed confidence in winning both seats.

CPIM already announced its candidates for the by-polls – now all eyes are focused on the Congress and TIPRA Motha Party as none of these cleared their stand so far.

In the 2023 Assembly polls, CPIM won the Boxanagar seat while the Dhanpur constituency went to BJP.

At Boxanagar, CPIM’s Samsul Haque polled 19404 votes (50.34%) whereas Taffajal Hossain secured 14555 votes (37.76%) in the 2023 Assembly polls. CPIM’s Samsul Haque defeated BJP’s Tafajjal Hossain by a margin of 4849 votes.  

BJP’s candidate Union MoS Pratima Bhoumik secured 19148 votes (42.25%) in the Dhanpur constituency in the last Assembly polls. Her nearest rival CPIM’s Kaushik Chanda bagged 15648 votes (34.53%).

In both Boxanagar and Dhanpur Assembly Constituencies, TIPRA Motha came n the third position with 7.81% and 19.13% vote shares respectively.