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Tripura BJP to contest district council polls with ally IPFT
IPFT announced cancellation of their first list of candidates in light of revision done due to alliance with the BJP.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) polls along with their alliance partner, Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), according to Tripura BJP president Dr Manik Saha.
The polls for 30-seats in TTAADC will be conducted on April 4. Of the total 30 seats, 28 are elected while two are nominated.
According to seat sharing plan, the BJP alone would contest on 11 seats while the IPFT would field 16 candidates. On the remaining seats, both the parties have agreed for a ‘friendly’ contest.
"We are going to contest the Autonomous District Council polls with our ally IPFT. We will field our candidates in total 14 seats of which there will be a friendly fight in three seats," said Saha at Agartala Press Club on Tuesday late evening.
IPFT president and Revenue Minister NC Debbarma said, "We will contest on 16 seats. There will be a friendly contest in the remaining three seats."
Earlier on February 19, the IPFT formed an alliance with royal scion Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma's apolitical organization, The Indigenous People's Regional Alliance (TIPRA), through signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The party even declared their candidates on 18 seats last Sunday. With this announcement, the TIPRA discontinued their alliance with IPFT.
"Our first list of candidates was cancelled as we have announced our fresh list of candidates in alliance with the BJP, "said Debbarma.
A total of 865,041 people including 436,548 males and 428,490 females will exercise their franchise in the TTAADC polls.
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The final date for filing nominations is March 12, while scrutiny of the nomination papers will be done by March 15.
The final date for withdrawal of the nominations has been fixed for March 17. Votes will be counted on April 8.
The IPFT along with the BJP formed government in 2018 for the first time with 44 seats after ousting more than two decades old Marxist government. Out of 44 seats, the IPFT won eight seats.
Both the parties contested the Lok Sabha polls independently.
