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Tripura bypolls: Chief minister Manik Saha to contest against former BJP MLA
Tripura chief minister Dr. Manik Saha will contest from Town Bordowali constituency against Asish Kumar Saha, who switched side from the BJP to the Congress in February.
AGARTALA: Two days before the final date of filing nominations, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Congress on Saturday declared candidates in four seats for the Tripura bypolls scheduled to be held on June 23, according to statements issued by both the parties.
Newly-appointed chief minister, Dr. Manik Saha, who replaced Biplab Kumar Deb, will contest from Town Bordowali as he has to be elected to the Assembly within six months as per rules to continue as the CM.
Saha is a Rajya Sabha MP from Tripura and also the party’s state president.
BJP vice president Dr. Ashok Sinha, a former spokesperson and an intellectual face of the party, will contest from Agartala seat while Swapna Das Paul and Malina Debnath have been fielded from Surma and Yubrajnagar constituencies.
Malina Debnath is the BJP’s organisational president in the North district. In 2014, she contested and lost in the panchayat polls.
All the four BJP candidates including the chief minister are first-time contestants of any Assembly constituency.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved the candidature of former BJP legislators Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Kumar Saha from Agartala and Town Bordowali seats respectively, according to a press statement issued by the party.
Sudip Roy Barman was inducted as health minister in former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s cabinet in 2018 and a year later, he was dropped due to his alleged differences with Deb.
He along with Asish Saha in February switched over to the Congress, the party they had left to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2016. They moved to the saffron party in 2017.
Sudip Roy Barman has been representing Agartala constituency for the past five terms.
Asish Saha, known to be a close aide of Roy Barman, became legislator on a Congress ticket in 2013 Assembly polls and on a BJP ticket in 2018 from Town Bordowali seat. Saha has been representing the seat for the last four terms.
The Left Front and Trinamool Congress have already declared candidates for the four constituencies.
The last date for filing nominations is June 6 while their papers will be scrutinised on June 7.
The nominations can be withdrawn by the candidates on June 9. The counting of votes will be held on June 26.
The bypoll has been viewed as a semi-final ahead of the state Assembly polls to be held next year.
The bypoll was necessitated in Yubrajnagar constituency due to the demise of legislator and veteran CPI(M) leader Ramendra Chandra Nath in February. The bypolls were necessitated in the other three seats after the BJP legislators from there switched side-- Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Kumar Saha to the Congress and Asish Das to the Trinamool Congress. Das recently quit the party and is yet to announce his next political course of action.
