Tripura Election Results Live Updates: Left takes narrow lead, BJP alliance close behind
ET Online|
Updated: Mar 03, 2018, 09.26 AM IST
An hour after counting began, it's a neck and neck battle in Tripura. The Left Front is narrowly ahead but the BJP still has a lot of steam. Can the BJP-IPFT unseat Manik Sarkar. Tripura CM Manik Sarkar is in a comfortable position in Dhanpur seat.
Will the Left Front be removed from power in Tripura after a long innings of 25 years? Has the BJP'c call for change and development triumphed over Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's charisma? This is the biggest point of interest on Saturday when votes are counted in elections for three state assemblies in the northeast.
Two exit polls have suggested the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dethroning the Left though just ahead of counting both the parties claimed they are confident of forming the government in the state.
In 2013, the BJP had contested 50 seats in the last assembly polls in 2013 and its candidates forfeited their deposits on 49 seats. The CPI-M had won 49 of the 55 seats it contested while the Congress managed to win 10 out of 48 seats it contested. But since then the BJP managed to acquire six MLAs from thhe Congress, and together with its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, an anti-Left tribal party, managed to emerge the principal challenger.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah led the high-wattage campaign of the BJP which crisscrossed the state and gave the call for change and development in a state though high in human indices is fighting unemployment and low wages. 'Chalo Paltai' ( Let's Change) was their rallying call against the Left which banked on the personal charisma of Manik Sarkar and his track-record in bringing peace and stability to an insurgency-hit state.
The 20 seats in the tribal areas always hold the key to who will get to rule Agartala. In 2013, the CPI(M) which has a grasssroot presence in the hills won all of them.
A defeat here will reduce the presence of the Left in the country to just Kerala, the red front being displaced from power long ago in West Bengal by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
Will the Left Front be removed from power in Tripura after a long innings of 25 years? Has the BJP'c call for change and development triumphed over Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's charisma? This is the biggest point of interest on Saturday when votes are counted in elections for three state assemblies in the northeast.
Two exit polls have suggested the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dethroning the Left though just ahead of counting both the parties claimed they are confident of forming the government in the state.
In 2013, the BJP had contested 50 seats in the last assembly polls in 2013 and its candidates forfeited their deposits on 49 seats. The CPI-M had won 49 of the 55 seats it contested while the Congress managed to win 10 out of 48 seats it contested. But since then the BJP managed to acquire six MLAs from thhe Congress, and together with its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, an anti-Left tribal party, managed to emerge the principal challenger.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah led the high-wattage campaign of the BJP which crisscrossed the state and gave the call for change and development in a state though high in human indices is fighting unemployment and low wages. 'Chalo Paltai' ( Let's Change) was their rallying call against the Left which banked on the personal charisma of Manik Sarkar and his track-record in bringing peace and stability to an insurgency-hit state.
The 20 seats in the tribal areas always hold the key to who will get to rule Agartala. In 2013, the CPI(M) which has a grasssroot presence in the hills won all of them.
A defeat here will reduce the presence of the Left in the country to just Kerala, the red front being displaced from power long ago in West Bengal by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
