Agartala: Tripura would go to polls on Sunday with the BJP emerging as the main challenger to the ruling Left Front, which has been in power in the state for the last 25 years. Polling would be held in 59 of the total 60 seats. Voting in Charilam Assembly constituency would be held on March 12 due to the death of the CPM candidate for the seat, Ramendra Deb Barma, five days ago. Twenty seats have been reserved for the scheduled tribes.
The BJP held a high-voltage campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as four rallies in the state. Other heavyweight leaders of the saffron party to take part in the campaign were its national president Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Manik Sarkar, who is running for his fifth term as the Chief Minister, led the CPM’s campaign addressing around 50 rallies in the state. Other Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat lent support to the party's campaign.
The Congress’ campaign was somewhat subdued with party president Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally at Kailashahar in Unakoti district, about 180 km from Agartala, on the last day of campaigning. Altogether, 307 candidates are in the fray. The CPM is contesting in 57 seats. The BJP, which has forged an alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura has fielded 51 candidates. The Congress is going it alone in Tripura this time and will contest in 59 seats. There are 25,73,413 electorate, of whom 13,05,375 are males and 12,68,027 women while the number of third gender voters is 11. There are 47,803 new voters this time.
