Agartala: Putting all speculations to rest, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Tripura announced its list of candidates for the by-elections late on August 15. The party re-nominated Tofajjal Hossain as the candidate from Boxanagar assembly constituency and announced the name of Bindu Debnath, a new face, as its candidate for the politically-significant Dhanpur constituency.
CPIM veteran Samsul Haque had defeated Hossain in the March assembly elections. Haque’s sudden demise left the assembly seat vacant, prompting the ECI to conduct elections. On the other hand, the Dhanpur assembly constituency, where Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik, emerged as the first anti-Left to win elections in the last 60 years, saw a dramatic chain of events leading to Bhoumik’s resignation within a couple of days of her election.
Party sources privy to the internal developments claimed that Bhoumik, now serving as a member of the Lok Sabha and holding an important portfolio of Union Minister, has visible differences with Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha. A section of MLAs heavily backed Bhoumik as the new Chief Ministerial candidate of the party after the polls.
The intervention of party top brass ended the dreadlock, and Bhoumik continued with her responsibilities at the Central level. Bindu Debnath, the candidate from Dhanpur, is a Bhoumik loyalist. Currently, he is the president of BJP Dhanpur Mandal. Speaking on the issue, a senior BJP leader said, “BJP northeast coordinator Sambit Patra visited the state recently and held a meeting with the senior BJP leaders.
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All names were reported to Patra, who conveyed the state unit’s message to the party parliamentary board. Following discussions, the names were announced on August 15 night. The nominations will be filed on August 17, the last day of submission”. The names of BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee and former deputy CM Jishnu Dev Varma were also discussed for the Dhanpur assembly constituency.
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