Trinamool Congress had on June 7 warned the BJP that the bypolls in four Assembly constituencies in Tripura would be a foreshadowing of the ruling party's debacle in the Assembly elections slated early next year. This seems to have turned on TMC itself with the saffron party bagging three of the four seats on Monday with the former drawing a blank. All four of its candidates faced the threat of losing their election deposits.
The change of guard and a divided opposition seems to have favoured the BJP. The results, according to party workers, proved that the BJP can win elections despite the crisis over leadership and the exit of at least three strong leaders (Sudip Roy Barman, Ashish Kumar Saha and Ashish Das).
"People voted in favour of development. In the next six-seven months, I will try my best to address the problems confronting people," CM Manik Saha told reporters soon after he was elected from the Town Bardowali seat. This was Saha's maiden direct election battle and the victory was a must for him to remain in the CM post. Saha, a Rajya Sabha member was made the CM in May, replacing Biplab Kumar Deb, who became the CM after the 2018 victory. Saha defeated Congress' Ashis Kumar Saha, who quit BJP along with Barman in February. Ashish was a two-time BJP MLA from Town Bardowali.
Results also negated speculations of a change of CM ahead of Assembly polls and the reported disgruntlement within the party for choosing Saha as the CM ahead of bypolls. It was an easy win for Saha and two other BJP candidates in Juvarajnagar and Surma. BJP wrested the Juvarajnagar seat from CPI (M), the second biggest party in the Assembly with 15 seats.
Congress, which failed to win a single seat in 2018, won in the prestigious Agartala seat, where Sudip Roy Barman, a former minister in Biplab Kumar Deb's cabinet won by over 3,000 votes. "Normally the bypolls are won by the party which is in power. But by electing me, people of Tripura have expressed their anger and frustration against the ruling BJP. The same anger will be reflected strongly in the Assembly elections next year," Barman told reporters.
TMC leaders struggled for words to defend the results. Senior TMC leader and Rajya Sabha member, Sushmita Dev told DH, "TMC fought hard but we lost. We respect the mandate of the people. We faced so much violence that we could not build our organisation ahead of the bypolls. We opened our offices in Goa, Meghalaya and Assam but were prevented in Tripura because of which we could not consolidate our position. We will fight back and prepare for 2023."
After the consecutive victory in Bengal, TMC set its eyes on Tripura to wrest power from BJP in 2023.
In the 60-member Assembly, BJP now has 33 MLAs while CPI (M) 15 and Congress only one. IPFT, BJP's regional ally has 11.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks