AGARTALA: With Dhanpur and Boxanagar assembly seats in Tripura’s Sepahijala district going for bypolls tomorrow, a head-to-head contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) is on the cards. Dhanpur assembly constituency boasts 59 booths, while Boxanagar comprises 51.
To ensure the integrity and security of the electoral process, every polling booth will be under the vigilant supervision of central paramilitary forces with Tripura State Rifles personnel stationed outside to bolster security measures.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer UG Mog told the press that comprehensive arrangements have been put in place to guarantee a fair, transparent, and peaceful election.
In a bid to thwart any potential intrusion from Bangladesh, considering both constituencies share a border with the neighbouring nation, the international border has been effectively sealed off, according to a senior police officer.
In Boxanagar, which counts 66% of its electorate as belonging to minority communities out of a total of 43,087 electors, BJP’s Tafajjal Hussain is set to challenge CPI(M) nominee Mizan Hussain. Notably, the CPI(M) successfully retained the seat in the last assembly elections held in February.
Meanwhile, the Dhanpur assembly constituency, once hailed as a stronghold of the Left, will witness a contest between BJP’s Bindu Debnath and Kaushik Debnath of the CPI(M). This constituency comprises 50,346 eligible voters. Interestingly, the BJP secured the seat for the first time in the poll conducted seven months ago.
Notably, neither the Congress nor the Tripura Motha has fielded candidates in these two seats for the bypolls. The bypoll for the Boxanagar constituency was necessitated by the unfortunate demise of CPI(M) MLA Samsul Haque. Conversely, Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik’s resignation as the MLA of Dhanpur triggered the need for a by-election to that seat.
Tripura BJP Chief Spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty exuded confidence in the ruling party’s prospects. He told the local press that the party is confident of winning both the seats with a substantial margin.
However, former Tripura Chief Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar countered Chakraborty’s claim, highlighting that the BJP’s vote share in the state had “diminished from 51% in 2018 to 39% in the last assembly elections. Additionally, he noted that the saffron party’s seat count had decreased from 46 to 33 during this period.
