Agartala (Tripura): Tripura Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manik Saha won the assembly poll from the Town Bardowali constituency by a margin of 6,104 votes, the Election Commission said. BJP has bagged victory on three out of four seats in the Tripura bypolls while the Congress won one seat.
Congress candidate Sudip Roy Barman won from Agartala seat by 3,163 votes. The BJP won Town Bordowali, Jubarajnagar and Surma seats respectively. The bypolls in Tripura were crucial for Manik Saha who replaced Biplab Kumar Deb last month. The dentist-turned politician himself was a candidate and fought his first-ever direct election to save his CM seat.
The bypolls were necessitated in these seats due to the resignations of the legislators in two seats, disqualification of an MLA in one, and the death of one of the MLAs midterm. Saha was sworn in as the chief minister of Tripura on May 15. The BJP decided on leadership change in the state a year ahead of the Assembly elections by replacing Biplab Kumar Deb with Saha as the Chief Minister.
After Manik Saha was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Tripura, the BJP has once again taken recourse to its old mantra to beat anti-incumbency by changing the face in a poll-bound state. Saha joined the BJP in 2016 after quitting Congress. He was made party chief in 2020 and elected to Rajya Sabha in March this year. Meanwhile, BJP national president JP Nadda congratulated Manik Saha on his victory in the elections.
Taking to Twitter, Nadda wrote, "Congratulations to CM Shri @DrManikSaha2 for winning the assembly poll from his constituency and to all @BJP4Tripura leaders for winning 3 out of 4 seats in the bypolls. This is the result of your hardwork and the faith of the people in the vision of Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi," Nadda tweeted.
