Agartala, Feb 28, 2013 : As anticipated Tripura's left front made a big bang return to power for the fifth consecutive time today since 1993, increasing its tally of seats from 49 to 50 and percentage of votes marginally, inflicting a massive drubbing on opposition Congress-INPT combine . While Congress was able to hold on to its tally of ten seats in the sixty member state assembly the INPT failed to open account as even the fading regional party’s president and erstwhile TNV militant leader Bijay Kumar Hrangkhawal suffered an ignominious defeat against the left front’s candidate Lalit Debbarma-a political greenhorn-from Ambassa (ST) seat in Dhalai district by a margin of 1037 votes. The biggest setback for Congress was the narrow defeat of its vice president and veteran leader Surajit Dutta from the Ramnagar assembly constituency in Agartala . Dutta who had won the seat five successive times since 1988 lost the seat by the narrow margin of 65 votes despite the total absence of Trinamool from the electoral arena and consequent non-division of anti-left votes.
Early indications of the results were available as the counting commenced in 17 locations across the state from 8-00 in the morning. After the first round of counting leader of the opposition of Congress in Mohanpur assembly constituency in West Tripura district first trailed and then appeared to have lost the seat by more than three hundred votes. But on two successive recounting upon Nath’s demand he won the seat by 714 votes. Despite the statewide reverses Congress had a consolation of winning three of the four seats in Agartala town but the party’s domination of the state capital was dented as Surajit Dutta lost narrowly. However, the PCC president Sudip Roy Barman defeated his nearest CPI (M) rival Shankar Prasad Dutta rather comfortably by a margin of 2741 votes.
Altogether five of the ten seats captured by Congress came from West Tripura while after a gap of long fifteen years the party opened its account in south Tripura district (renamed upon truncation as Gomati district) when Pranjit Singha won the R.K.Pur seat by a margin of 837 votes defeating the RSP leader and minister for science and technology Jaygobinda Debroy. The differences of opinion in Congress over the justification of alliance with regional INPT seemed justified as the INPT drew a blank while Congress’s indigenous leader Dibachandra Hrangkhawal defeated veteran CPI (M) leader and ADC’s executive member Gajendra Tripura by a margin of 1372 seats. This is the only seat won by Congress among six seats of Dhalai district. In neighbouring Unakoti district also Congress could win only one of altogether four seats when veteran leader Birajit Sinha narrowly retained the Kailasahar seat by a margin of only 485 votes. Similarly, in north Tripura district also the left front made a near clean sweep of seven seats , retaining six and losing only the Dharmangar town seat when the sitting MLA Biswabandhu Sen defeated his CPI (M) rival Amitava Dutta by a margin of 1844 votes.
Interestingly, in three of the state’s eight districts-south Tripura, Sipahijala and Khowai-Congress failed to win a single seat. The chief minister Manik Sarkar who had entered the fray from his pocket-borough , Dhanpur constituency won against Congress’s Shah Alam by a margin of 6017 votes, more than doubling up the margin of 2918 votes obtained in 2008. While only Jaygobinda Debroy of RSP lost the R.K.Pur seat , the remaining ten ministers in the left front cabinet retained their seats comfortably though the veteran minister for higher education and information Anil Sarkar won by the considerably reduced margin of 2132 votes. ‘My margin of victory was more than seven thousand in 2008, this has come come down mainly because of the delimitation as part of which fifteen thousand voters from my Pratapgarh assembly constituency were shifted to the newly created Sujyamoni Nagar constituency and seventy percent of them are my supporters, naturally my margin has gone down’ said Anil Sarkar. He attributed the good showing of the left front to the committed support of voters belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. ‘We won 19 of the 20 ST seats and 9 of the ten seats reserved for scheduled castes ;voters belonging to both the communities are our core strengths’ said Sarkar.
The CPI (M) party secretary Bijan Dhar and party spokesman Gautam Das congratulated the people for the ‘massive mandate’ they have given the left front and charged that Congress’s efforts at misleading the people have boomeranged on the party. However, the PCC president Sudip Roy Barman expressed his ‘shock and dismay’ over the poll outcome.
Early indications of the results were available as the counting commenced in 17 locations across the state from 8-00 in the morning. After the first round of counting leader of the opposition of Congress in Mohanpur assembly constituency in West Tripura district first trailed and then appeared to have lost the seat by more than three hundred votes. But on two successive recounting upon Nath’s demand he won the seat by 714 votes. Despite the statewide reverses Congress had a consolation of winning three of the four seats in Agartala town but the party’s domination of the state capital was dented as Surajit Dutta lost narrowly. However, the PCC president Sudip Roy Barman defeated his nearest CPI (M) rival Shankar Prasad Dutta rather comfortably by a margin of 2741 votes.
Altogether five of the ten seats captured by Congress came from West Tripura while after a gap of long fifteen years the party opened its account in south Tripura district (renamed upon truncation as Gomati district) when Pranjit Singha won the R.K.Pur seat by a margin of 837 votes defeating the RSP leader and minister for science and technology Jaygobinda Debroy. The differences of opinion in Congress over the justification of alliance with regional INPT seemed justified as the INPT drew a blank while Congress’s indigenous leader Dibachandra Hrangkhawal defeated veteran CPI (M) leader and ADC’s executive member Gajendra Tripura by a margin of 1372 seats. This is the only seat won by Congress among six seats of Dhalai district. In neighbouring Unakoti district also Congress could win only one of altogether four seats when veteran leader Birajit Sinha narrowly retained the Kailasahar seat by a margin of only 485 votes. Similarly, in north Tripura district also the left front made a near clean sweep of seven seats , retaining six and losing only the Dharmangar town seat when the sitting MLA Biswabandhu Sen defeated his CPI (M) rival Amitava Dutta by a margin of 1844 votes.
Interestingly, in three of the state’s eight districts-south Tripura, Sipahijala and Khowai-Congress failed to win a single seat. The chief minister Manik Sarkar who had entered the fray from his pocket-borough , Dhanpur constituency won against Congress’s Shah Alam by a margin of 6017 votes, more than doubling up the margin of 2918 votes obtained in 2008. While only Jaygobinda Debroy of RSP lost the R.K.Pur seat , the remaining ten ministers in the left front cabinet retained their seats comfortably though the veteran minister for higher education and information Anil Sarkar won by the considerably reduced margin of 2132 votes. ‘My margin of victory was more than seven thousand in 2008, this has come come down mainly because of the delimitation as part of which fifteen thousand voters from my Pratapgarh assembly constituency were shifted to the newly created Sujyamoni Nagar constituency and seventy percent of them are my supporters, naturally my margin has gone down’ said Anil Sarkar. He attributed the good showing of the left front to the committed support of voters belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. ‘We won 19 of the 20 ST seats and 9 of the ten seats reserved for scheduled castes ;voters belonging to both the communities are our core strengths’ said Sarkar.
The CPI (M) party secretary Bijan Dhar and party spokesman Gautam Das congratulated the people for the ‘massive mandate’ they have given the left front and charged that Congress’s efforts at misleading the people have boomeranged on the party. However, the PCC president Sudip Roy Barman expressed his ‘shock and dismay’ over the poll outcome.
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