Agartala: The recently concluded Tripura election was an exciting contest as it transformed Tripura’s largely bipolar political electoral battle into a triangular one. The fight was not limited to Left versus Right, as regional aspirations played a crucial role in determining the winners and losers.
Political observers may attribute the division of opposition votes to TIPRA motha, a two-year-old political party that emerged as one of the key players and won 13 seats. However, it should be noted that candidates from the CPIM and Congress also prevented TIPRA motha from achieving victory.
Upon closer examination of the final result sheet published by the Election Commission of India, it becomes clear that a certain level of consensus between opposition parties, including CPIM, Congress, and TIPRA motha, could have potentially altered the outcome of the election.
The opposition, which now holds a total of 27 seats, could have formed the government or made the election results more intriguing. However, their lack of understanding and flawed messaging against each other ultimately led to the decimation of their aspirations.
According to data from the Election Commission of India, the BJP won a respectable victory in 19 constituencies despite the fact that the majority of people voted against the saffron party. This is further evidenced by the fact that the party in power saw its vote share dwindle to 39 per cent from its previous position.
Although the BJP managed to secure a majority on its own, the margin of victory in many constituencies was very thin. Even some heavyweight candidates failed to cross the victory line for TIPRA motha.
However, it would be incorrect to assume that the opposition could have secured all of the votes that went to TIPRA motha if there had been a consensus. Upon careful examination of the results, it seems that the BJP was actually struggling, and it should invest more in building its organization to ensure its hold on power.
Among the 19 constituencies is Mohanpur, the assembly that elected senior BJP Minister Ratan Lal Nath for the seventh time in a row. This time, he received 19,663 votes.
Surprisingly, the TIPRA motha candidate and former Congress leader, Tapas Dey, came in second with 12,278 votes, while Congress came in a distant third with 10,588 votes. The total votes against Nath were more than what he received. The next victim of vote division was CPIM veteran Pabitra Kar, who received 18,343 votes and was defeated by BJP’s Ratan Chakraborty, who received 22,453 votes.
In that constituency, TIPRA’s Laxmi Nag played the spoilsport by receiving 5,147 votes. In the Ramnagar assembly constituency of Agartala, Trinamool Congress candidate Pujan Biswas caused the defeat of right activist Puroshattam Roy Barman. With just over 2,000 votes, Biswas helped BJP candidate Surajit Datta secure his victory.
The Majlishpur assembly constituency, which is often in the news for violence, also witnessed a triangular contest this time. BJP Minister Sushanta Chowdhury won with 21,349 votes, while CPIM’s Sanjay Das received 16,177 votes. Samir Basu of TIPRA Motha received around 7,000 votes in the constituency. Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik, who made history by defeating CPIM in Dhanpur, also benefited from the triangular fight. She received 19,148 votes, while her rival candidate from CPIM, Koushik Chanda, received 15,648 votes. Amiya Dayal Noatia of TIPRA received 8,671 votes. These are just a few selected constituencies.
In all the districts of the state where TIPRA fielded candidates, they received a significant number of votes, which could be explained as the weakness of the so-called mainstream opposition parties.
This time, however, none of the opposition parties can use the excuse of EVM malfunctioning or large-scale rigging.
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The polls have also helped CM Dr Manik Saha dispel the allegations of being a Chief Minister who won the elections because of large-scale rigging. He might have won the polls with a minor margin, but he proved his political acumen by defeating Congress’s Asish Saha.
Meanwhile, TIPRA Motha candidates secured the second position in six assembly constituencies, and if CPIM and Congress had genuinely helped TIPRA, the party could have performed much better than where it stands today.
However, the results also carry a message for the BJP. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had performed exponentially well in the 2018 assembly elections, has been brought to the margins.
Also Read | Tipra Motha: Regional party to reckon with