Polling to elect a new government in the northeastern state of Tripura has begun at 7 am today. A three-way race is expected as the ruling BJP campaigns in alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and the Tipra Motha, which is seen as a deciding factor in the event of a hung assembly and emerged as a significant regional party floated by the royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma in 2021. The Congress and CPIM, who have been bitter rivals for years, stitched a pre-poll alliance to defeat. Trinamool Congress has also fielded candidates in several seats.
In addition to IPFT's six seats, the BJP is running for 55 seats. However, in the Gomati district's Ampinagar constituency, both allies have fielded their candidates. The Left will fight for 47 seats and Congress for 13 seats. The CPM will contest in 43 of the 47 seats available, while the Forward Bloc, Communist Party of India (CPI), and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) will each run for one. In the border state's election for a 60-member assembly, there are more than 28 lakh eligible voters.
Tripura is the first state to go to the polls this year. While polling for Nagaland and Meghalaya assemblies will be held on February 27, five more states face elections this year in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. A total of 259 candidates, including 20 women, are in the fray in Tripura. The counting of votes will be done on March 2.
Town Bordowali is a popular assembly constituency in Tripura as Chief Minister Manik Saha won the MLA by-elections held in 2022. The Assembly constituency comes under the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency.
Earlier in June 2022, at the by-elections, Saha defeated Congress contender Ashish Kumar Saha and won the seat by a margin of 6,104 votes. Congress candidate Ashish Kumar, running for the BJP, won the Town Bordowali seat in the 2018 assembly elections.
Town Bordowali is all set to witness a fierce battle between CM Manik Shah and heavyweight Congress candidate Ashish Kumar Saha.
All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) candidate Ananta Banerjee is the dark horse in the Town Bordowali assembly constituency.
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