End of road for communists in Tripura: BJP after bypoll victories

The BJP hailed its victory in the bypolls to the Dhanpur and Boxanagar Assembly seats in Tripura on Friday and said it is the end of the road for the communists in the northeastern state, which was once known as a Left bastion.

According to the Election Commission (EC), Tafajjal Hossain of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Boxanagar seat, which has around 66 per cent minority voters, by a margin of 30,237 votes. Hossain got 34,146 votes while Mizan Hossain of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) bagged 3,909 votes.

BJP's Bindu Debnath won the Dhanpur seat, which has a significant tribal population, by a margin of 18,871 votes. Debnath got 30,017 votes while Kaushik Chanda of the CPI(M) got 11,146 votes.

Both the seats in Sepahijala district witnessed a one-on-one contest between the ruling BJP and the CPI(M) as the two other opposition parties -- Tipra Motha and Congress -- had not fielded candidates.

"BJP wins both Assembly seats in Tripura.... End of the road for the Communists, in what was once their bastion," the party's IT department head, Amit Malviya, said in a post on X.

Alleging large-scale rigging during the polling and inaction on the part of the EC, the CPI(M) boycotted the counting of votes.

Polling for the by-elections was held on September 5. An average turnout of 86.5 per cent was recorded in the two seats. The counting was held at the Sonamura Girls' School amid tight security.

The bypoll to the Boxanagar constituency was necessitated by the death of CPI(M) MLA Samsul Haque. Union minister Pratima Bhoumik's resignation as the MLA from Dhanpur had necessitated the bypoll in that seat.

The BJP won the Dhanpur seat for the first time in the Assembly polls held seven months ago and retained it in the by-election. In a significant victory, the ruling party wrested the minority-dominated Boxanagar seat from the CPI(M) in the bypoll.

With these victories, the BJP's tally in the 60-member Assembly increased to 33. Its ally, IPFT, has one MLA, while the Tipra Motha has 13 MLAs, the CPI(M) 10 and the Congress three.