Tripura polls: Candidates who won by margin of less than 1,000 votes in 2018

Ten candidates of the CPI(M) and the BJP won the 2018 Tripura Assembly Elections with a margin of less than 1,000 votes

The 2023 Tripura Assembly election, which was a one-phase affair, took place on February 16. Two other northeastern states, namely Meghalaya and Nagaland, will be choosing their state legislators on February 27. The results of all three State Assembly elections are set to be declared on March 2.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, the people of Tripura chose to bring the BJP into power after an uninterrupted 25-year rule of the CPI(M) under former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar. Anti-incumbency sentiments ran high in the state, and just like their fellow party members in West Bengal in 2011, the Tripura CPI(M), after the 2018 elections, found themselves in the Opposition seats in the Vidhan Sabha after a considerable period of time.

Although the CPI(M) lost power in the state, it would be wrong to assume that their strong support base in Tripura was eradicated by 2018. While the BJP secured 35 seats and a total of 43.4 per cent of the votes, the CPI(M) secured less than half the seats – 16 – but managed to bag 43.2 per cent vote share. While eight seats and 7.5 per cent of the total votes went to the IPFT, 23,735 or 1 per cent of the total votes were cast on NOTA.

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The aforementioned figures make it pretty clear that the 2018 elections were a tightly contested affair no matter what the ultimate outcome was. This is further affirmed when we look at 10 of the 60 total seats in the state that were won with a margin of less than 1,000 votes. Five of these MLAs were from the CPI(M) and the other five were from the BJP.

The CPI(M) candidates are Bhanulal Saha (Bishalgarh), Pravat Chowdhury (Manu), Tapan Chakraborti (Chandipur), Bijita Nath (Bagbassa), and Ramendra Chandra Debnath (Jubrajnagar). The CPI(M) candidate who won his 2018 Assembly seat with the narrowest of margins was Pravat Chowdhury, who secured only 0.5% or 193 more votes than Dhananjoy Tripura of the IPFT who came second in the constituency of Manu.

The five BJP candidates are Krishnadhan Das (Bamutia), Subhash Chandra Das (Nalchar), Arun Chandra Bhaumik (Belonia), Burba Mohan Tripura (Karbuk), and Binay Bhushan Das (Panisagar). Nalchar’s Shubhash Chandra Das won his seat with the narrowest margin of 1.2 per cent. He received 19,261 votes compared to the CPI(M)’s Tapan Chandra Das, who received 18,810 votes.

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This time around, the polls in Tripura have seen the rise of the Tipra Motha led by the erstwhile royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Burma. The outfit has been seeing strong support from the masses for their demands for a separate Tripraland state, and both the BJP and the CPI(M) will be keeping a close watch on how many seats this party manages to win in case they need outside support in order to set a majority in the 60-member Tripura Assembly.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the Trinamul Congress’ supremo, also fielded candidates in the 2023 Tripura Assembly election. Although a similar attempt five years back did not yield impressive results for the TMC, it is yet to be seen if their extensive campaigning within the state has managed to sway the voters this time around.