Tripura Elections 2023: Left Front banks on new faces to oust BJP

During the previous elections, the Left relied mostly on old faces while nominating only 10 fresh ones and in the 2013 assembly polls, it nominated 12 fresh faces.

Agartala, Feb 09: In its quest to retain Tripura, the Communist Party of India (CPI(M))-led Left Front seems to banking on a combination of new faces defeat the BJP.

Of of 46 seats, CPM is contesting 43 while CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc are contesting one seat each. Congress will contest in 13 seats and is supporting an independent Purushottam Roy Barman in the Ramanagar constituency.

Of these, 28 candidates are first timers. It means around 60 percent of the candidates of the Left Front are fresh faces.

Prominent Left leaders former chief minister and CPM's present stalwart Manik Sarkar, Aghore Debbarma, Tapan Chakraborty, Badal Choudhury, Manik Dey, Shahid Choudhury, Bhanulal Saha, Narayan Choudhury and Jashabhir Tripura are out of contest this election.

Notably, all these veteran leaders barring Manik Dey and Aghore Debbarma have retained their seats even during the BJP wave in 2018.

This is a new trend in the Left as it had always been conservative when selecting candidates.

During the 2018 elections, the Left relied mostly on old faces while nominating only 10 fresh ones and in the 2013 assembly polls, it nominated 12 fresh faces.

Left Manifesto

Jobs for retrenched school teachers, one of the main issues the BJP had flagged in 2018 to come to power in Tripura, and the highest possible autonomy for areas under a tribal council, have featured in the Left Front manifesto released in Agartala on Friday.

The Left-front has also promised 2.5 lakh new jobs, pension to poor senior citizens, and reintroduction of the old pension scheme and two DA hikes for government employees every year if it is voted to power.

In the 15-page manifesto, it also promised the reinstatement of 10,323 retrenched teachers, regularisation of services of contractual employees and more autonomy to the tribal council.

The Left Front will also increase the dearness allowance (DA) of government employees twice a year based on the consumer price index and reintroduce the old pension scheme.

Tripura has 1,88,494 government employees and pensioners.

The Left Front also promised 200-day work per year to the poor to boost the rural economy.

The CPI(M) will contest in 43 seats alone while other Left Front constituents -- the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI -- will be contesting in one seat each. The Left Front is supporting an independent candidate in the Ramnagar constituency in West Tripura. The Congress is fighting 13 seats as per the seat-sharing agreement.

Tripura will vote on February 16 and counting will take place on March 2.

Left rule in Tripura

The "Left rule" in Tripura, an alliance of left-wing parties led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), ruled Tripura for 25 consecutive years from 1993 to 2018. Despite some criticism of their governance, the Left Front's rule in Tripura is widely regarded as a successful example of left-wing politics in India.