BJP make inroads into Tripura
The Bharatiya Janata Party has increased its votes in Tripura by 3.87 per cent since the last
assembly election in 1993. Going purely by gains, the party did better than the two major political forces -- the Left parties and the Congress-led alliance.
Analysis of the percentage of votes polled by the various parties shows that the front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist secured 49.1 per cent votes (including 45.5 per cent by the
CPI-M alone, while the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity and the Tripura National Volunteers alliance secured 43.1 per cent votes (including 34 per cent by the Congress) in the February 16 election.
The BJP, which for the first time fielded candidates in all the 60 assembly constituencies as well as two Lok Sabha seats, bagged 5.87 per cent votes this time. In the 60 assembly constituencies, the average number of voters was around 25,000 while the BJP secured about 2,000 votes in as many as 17 assembly constituencies, thereby affecting the winning chances of the Congress.
In the 1993 assembly election, the Left Front secured 49.57 per cent of the votes while the Congress-TUJS secured 39.33 per cent and the BJP two per cent. In the 1988 election, the Left Front and the Congress polled 49.26 and 47.48 of the votes, while the BJP got just 0.14 per cent. In the 1983 election, the percentages were 49.96 40.98 and 0.06 respectively.
Compared to the assembly election, both the Left Front and Congress dropped in the percentage of votes polled while the BJP gained. The average percentage of votes polled by the three parties in the two Lok Sabha seats was 48.9 per cent, 41.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively. Two tribal women candidates, both of the CPI-M, won the lowest and highest margins.
Of the 20 women who contested from 22 assembly segments, Baijyanti Koloi was elected to the assembly from Takarjala, defeating her TUJS rival Rahindra Debbarma by only six votes. Sandhya Rani Debbarma won from the tribal reserved Asharambari seat defeating TNV candidate Kripa Sadhan Jamatia by 9,249 votes.
Fifteen of the 60 legislators of the eighth Tripura assembly are new faces, three being Congress nominees. TNV chief Bijoy Kumar Hrangkhawl and 11 CPI-M nominees are among the first-time law-makers.
The Left Front's share declined to 41 seats this time compared to 49 in the 1993 election. Of these, the CPI-M had won 38, the RSP two and the Communist Party of India one. The CPI-M has retained 34 seats and wrested four from the Congress.
The RSP retained both its seats while the CPI made its entry into the state assembly after a gap of 21 years from Santir Bazar seat, bagged by the CPI-M last time.
The Congress-TUJS and TNV alliance, which secured 11 seats in the 1993 election, bagged 18 this time. The alliance also has the support of the lone Independent candidate. The Congress got 13 seats on its own, and its allies, the TUJS and TNV, got four and one respectively.
In the previous three assembly elections, the Left Front secured 56 in 1978, while the TUJS bagged four and the Congress drew a blank. In 1983, the Left Front secured 40 seats while the Congress-TUJS alliance secured 20. In 1988, the Left Front secured only 28 seats while the Congress-TUJS alliance got 31 seats, as the election was held in 59 seats.
UNI
Elections '98
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