Agartala: The Congress on Saturday released its list of candidates for next month’s elections to the 60-seat Tripura Assembly, and threw open the door for an alliance with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).
All India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of Central Election Committee Oscar Fernandes communicated the candidates’ names to the leaders of Tripura unit of the party.
“Central leaders headed by party president Rahul Gandhi approved candidates for 56 seats out of the total of 60 assembly seats. The names for the remaining four seats will be declared soon,” Tripura Pradesh Congress general secretary Harekrishna Bhowmik told the media after announcing the names of the party nominees.
Of the 56 candidates, three are women and 17 candidates are below the age of 50 years.
State Congress chief and sitting MLA Birajit Sinha will contest from his old turf Kailashahar in northern Tripura, while Congress Legislature Party leader Gopal Roy will fight from his existing seat in Banamalipur in Agartala
The BJP today released its first list of 44 candidates for Assembly elections in Tripura where the party looks to oust the Left Front government which has been in power for the last 25 years.
The strength of the state assembly is 60 members. While releasing the list, senior BJP leader J P Nadda said the Central Election Committee headed by party chief Amit Shah finalized the list of 44 candidates.
The party is going to contest on 51 seats and nine have been kept for its alliance partner, IPFT. The BJP refrained from announcing a chief ministerial candidate for the state elections.
The list includes the name of BJP’s state general secretary Pratima Bhowmik who will be contesting from Dhanpur, the constituency of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.
The party has decided to field its state president Biplab Kumar Deb from Banamalipur.The list also includes seven sitting MLAs, four women, 10 professionals like doctors and engineers, and two candidates from the field of arts.