Tripura CM Manik Saha faces the contest of his life

GUWAHATI: The Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha will contest in a seat of the state Assembly for the first time on June 23.

The BJP on Saturday announced the names of its candidates, including two women, for by-elections to four seats. The party's other candidates are state vice president Ashok Sinha, Swapna Das Paul and Malina Debnath.

The dentist-turned-politician Saha will contest from Town Bordowali, Sinha from Agartala, Das Paul from Surma (SC) and Debnath from Jubarajnagar seats.

On May 14 this year, the BJP's central leadership had replaced the then CM Biplab Kumar Deb with Saha, keeping in mind Assembly elections, due in the early part of next year.

Saha has had a meteoric rise in politics. In 2020, he was appointed the BJP's Tripura president. This was followed by his election as a Rajya Sabha member in April this year and appointment as the CM barely a month later.

Since he is a non-MLA, his victory in the by-election is imperative for his continuance as the CM. A four-cornered contest is expected in all the four constituencies.

At Town Bordowali, the CM will be up against Asish Kumar Saha (Congress), Neel Kamal Saha (Trinamool Congress) and Raghunath Sarkar (Forward Bloc).

The names of Asish Kumar Saha and Sudip Roy Barman were announced by the Congress on Saturday. Roy Barman will contest from Agartala.

Both were with the BJP but they resigned from the party as well as the Assembly after falling out with the then CM Deb. Roy Barman was, in fact, dropped from the ministry. Another MLA, Ashish Das, had also ditched the BJP and joined the Trinamool Congress. Recently, he resigned from the party.

The by-elections are being viewed as the semifinal of 2023 polls. The Left parties, which ruled Tripura for 25 years on the trot till 2018, are hoping to regain the lost ground.

The Trinamool Congress is trying to make inroads into the Bengali-majority state. In the civic elections of last year, it failed to leave a mark other than registering an impressive vote share.