All eyes had been on the Tripura by-polls, considered to be the semi-finals ahead of the assembly elections in the state next year. The BJP retained three seats despite changing its Chief Minister, and the Trinamool Congress faced a poor performance (with 2.8% votes) despite its hyperbolic campaign.
Dr Manik Saha, the new Chief Minister, fought for the first time from Bordowali seat, and won it by more than 5,000 votes. “We are very happy. I thank the people of Tripura that they have put their faith in me. I promise I will work for the development of people of Tripura,” Saha said after his win.
Sudip Roy Burman, who resigned from the BJP in opposition to Biplab Dev, and had joined Congress, fought from Agartala, and won. Sudip has been an old-time MLA of Agartala and this is the 6th time that he won from this seat. “I would like to thank people of Agartala that after the violence still people voted for me,” he said.
The TMC, which had contested on four seats, did not win any seat and got a mere 2.8 % voteshare. Speaking to News18, party leader Susmita Dev said, “Trinamool fought hard, no doubt, but being a fairly new party, we didn’t get time to build the organisation on the ground because of fear of violence. We have to do this from now in a focused way. Our office is almost ready and we will fight back,” she said.
Experts said the bypolls were a real challenge for the BJP as four MLAs had resigned, necessitating the by-elections.
They also said that changing the CM worked for them, as Dr Saha had a clean image. “A rejuvenation or new-face theory worked for the BJP,” the experts said.
On the other hand, experts believe that TMC lacked momentum which they had during last year during the municipal polls. Although, going by insiders, the TMC was not expecting much from these by-polls and are expected to be putting in more effort for next year. Going by political grapevine, there was lack of momentum on the ground from the TMC’s end from January.
Meanwhile, Tipra Motha came second in the Surma constituency and the Left came third in every seat.
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