Left Front sweeps Tripura polls; secures 50 seats

Agartala, Mar 7: Left Front wins Tripura Asssembly polls, with 50 seats. Manik Sarkar looks all set for his third consecutive term as Tripura Chief Minister with the CPI(M)-led Left Front sweeping the polls securing 33 of the 37 seats declared so far in the 60-member assembly. Manik Sarkar won from the Dhanpur constituency by a margin of 2918 votes defeating Saha Alam of Congress as the red brigade stormed to power in Tripura.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front had won the assembly polls in 1998 and 2003 to complete a hattrick this time. Badal Chowdhury, a veteran CPI(M) leader and Finance Minister, won from the Hrishyamukh constituency for the fourth term defeating his Congress rival Dilip Chowdhury by a margin of 7761 votes. CPI(M)'s Madhab Chandra Saha caused a major upset defeating erstwhile queen of Tripura and Mahila Congress candidate Bibhukumari Debi by 1260 votes. CPI(M) MLA and Speaker Ramendrachandra Nath won from Jubarajnagar seat defeating Congress's Bibharani Nath by 1616 votes.

CPI(M)'s Gauri Das wrested the Telinamura seat from sitting Congress MLA Ashok Kr Baidya. Similarly two other Congress heavyweights Ashok Debbabrma and Trade Union Leader Dipak Kr Roy were defeated by CPI(M)'s Keshab Debbarma and Shankar Prasad Dutta from Golaghati and Barjala constituencies respectively.

The other CPI(M) candidates to win were Manoranjan Acharaya from Birganj, Daniel Jamatia from Ampinagar, Samir Deb Sarkar from Khowai, Arun Kumar Dakma from Pencharthal and Lalit Mohan Tripura from Raima Valley.

Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) candidate and former militant Bijoy Hrangkhwal won from the Kulai constituency for the fourth term defeating Sabitri Debbarma of CPI(M) by 115 votes.

Congress won the Agartala seat with candidate Pradip Roy Burman defeating CPI(M) Dr Bikash Roy and the Dharmanagar seat where Congress's Biswabandhu Sen defeated CPI(M)'s three time sitting MLA Amitabha Dutta.

Congress's Subal Bhowmik, arguably the richest candidate in fray, upstaged Deputy Speaker and sitting MLA Subal Rudra of CPI(M) from Sonamura constituency by 1260 votes.

UNI