On Friday, the central leadership of the BJP declared Dipak Majumder, the Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation, as the candidate for the Ramnagar bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on April 19. This announcement comes after party state general secretary Amit Rakshit, a loyalist of former chief minister Biplab Deb, lobbied for his own candidature. Initially, there were speculations that Union Minister of State Pratima Bhoumik, who was not renominated by the party from her Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency, might be fielded for the Ramnagar bypoll. According to reports, she has been camping in Delhi. But it seems her efforts, as of now, didn’t bear fruit. This also once again puts to rest for the time being her attempts to become the chief minister.
Dipak Majumder is believed to be a favourite of Chief Minister Manik Saha. By nominating him, the central leadership has done a balancing act to keep both the official and rival factions in good humour. After the restructuring of the party organisation in December last year, where many Biplab loyalists secured positions, and later his nomination as the Tripura West candidate, it can’t be denied that the Biplab-led faction has emerged stronger in the state. So, the nomination of Dipak Majumder, who is believed to be a favourite of CM Saha, is seen as an attempt of balancing act done by the party's central leadership to keep both the factions in good humour. There are in fact two rival camps — a Biplab-led faction and a Pratima-led faction.
Coming to the Ramnagar constituency, in the last assembly elections, BJP’s Surajit Dutta won this seat by defeating independent Parushottam Roy Barman — who was supported by both Left Front and Congress — with a slight margin of 2.37% votes. Trinamool Congress’s Pujan Biswas had then split the anti-BJP votes by polling 5.50% votes. But this time, TMC has weakened further. So the fight, arithmetically, isn’t easy for the BJP. The Opposition CPI(M) declared former MLA Ratan Das as its candidate last Sunday, and the Congress too has announced its support for him. He has already started his election campaign.
It is not that only the state BJP is battling factionalism. The main Opposition CPM too is facing factionalism between state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury-led camp and former CM Manik Sarkar's camp. This factional divide came in the open when leaders of eight Opposition parties — CPM, Congress, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, CPI(ML) Liberation, Gana Mancha and Tripura People Party — met this Wednesday to devise a joint election campaign strategy for the two Lok Sabha seats as well as the Ramnagar by-election against the BJP in the state, and formed a 25-member state-level I.N.D.I.A Election Campaign Committee. Interestingly, Sarkar’s name was missing from the committee. Jitendra Chaudhury, who was officially recognised as the Leader of the Opposition by Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen this past week and Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman were made joint-convenors of the committee.
Sarkar was also surprisingly absent on Friday when the Left and the Congress held their first joint election campaign in Agartala, where a long procession was held followed by submission of nomination papers by CPM’s Ratan Das for the Ramnagar bypoll. Along with CPM leaders like Jitendra Chaudhury and Pabitra Kar, Congress leaders including state president Ashish Saha, who is also the candidate for the Tripura West constituency, and Sudip Roy Barman were also present.
Manik Sarkar, the veteran Left leader, has been unhappy with the party’s strategy to ally with the Congress. He was particularly against ceding the Tripura West seat to the Congress. His assessment is derived from the failure in last year’s state assembly polls, where the Left didn’t benefit largely by allying with the Congress. It was due to the opposition by Sarkar-led faction that forced CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and politburo member Prakash Karat to reach the state Sunday to decide the party's election strategy. According to a report by Tripurainfo, the party's 16-member state secretariat was equally divided on the issue of alliance with the Congress, and as a result it was the 70-member state committee that sealed the alliance deal after 47 members favoured the alliance.
Former Congress MLA Alfred Kangam Arthur was Monday attacked by miscreants while he was addressing an election rally in the Naga-dominated Ukhrul town. He was left unhurt when the miscreants fired at him. The Naga-dominated areas like the Ukhrul district were untouched by ethnic violence that broke out between Kuki-Zomis and Meiteis on May 3, 2023.
The incident of firing in an election rally of a probable Congress candidate — who was officially declared as the party candidate for the seat Friday — shows that the situation on the ground hasn’t improved much. State Congress president K Meghachandra was right when he said that the incident triggered panic among people. It is not that the Election Commission of India isn’t aware of this. In fact, it has decided to hold the election in the Outer Manipur constituency in two phases, a very unusual decision that is aimed to ensure security for the voters of the constituency. Elections are an important part in strengthening democracy. However, there is a requirement — the elections have to be held in a peaceful environment, free from violence and fear. This is a challenge for the ECI to ensure that the voters take part in the festival of democracy without fear. How it does this remains to be seen.
A prominent Muslim-face of the ruling BJP, Aminul Haque Lashkar, resigned from primary membership of the party and joined the Congress this past week. This is a boost for the grand old party, which has been contesting without an alliance with the All India United Democratic Front, in the Barak Valley where Muslims have a significant presence.
Notably, he was the only Muslim legislator from the BJP in the state assembly from 2016 to 2021. During that term, he also served as the deputy speaker of the state assembly. But he lost to AlUDF’s Karim Uddin Barbuiya in the last assembly elections.
Although the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is ahead of the Opposition in Assam, Aminul leaving the BJP, perception wise, is a loss for the saffron party, which has been trying to build a base among the Muslim voters. In the last state elections, the BJP tried to win some Muslim-majority constituencies and even nominated 8 candidates from the community. But none of the party’s Muslim candidates were able to secure victory.
The author is a political commentator.
[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP Network Pvt. Ltd.]
Ramnagar Bypoll Choice Shows BJP Wants To Keep Rival Party Factions In Tripura In Good Humour
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24.03.2024
On Friday, the central leadership of the BJP declared Dipak Majumder, the Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation, as the candidate for the Ramnagar bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on April 19. This announcement comes after party state general secretary Amit Rakshit, a loyalist of former chief minister Biplab Deb, lobbied for his own candidature. Initially, there were speculations that Union Minister of State Pratima Bhoumik, who was not renominated by the party from her Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency, might be fielded for the Ramnagar bypoll. According to reports, she has been camping in Delhi. But it seems her efforts, as of now, didn’t bear fruit. This also once again puts to rest for the time being her attempts to become the chief minister.
Dipak Majumder is believed to be a favourite of Chief Minister Manik Saha. By nominating him, the central leadership has done a balancing act to keep both the official and rival factions in good humour. After the restructuring of the party organisation in December last year, where many Biplab loyalists secured positions, and later his nomination as the Tripura West candidate, it can’t be denied that the Biplab-led faction has emerged stronger in the state. So, the nomination of Dipak Majumder, who is believed to be a favourite of CM Saha, is seen as an attempt of balancing act done by the party's central leadership to keep both the factions in good humour. There are in fact two rival camps — a Biplab-led faction and a Pratima-led faction.
Coming to the Ramnagar constituency, in the last assembly elections, BJP’s Surajit Dutta won this seat by defeating independent Parushottam Roy Barman — who was supported by both Left Front and........
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