Tripura Assembly Elections 2018: Total Seats, Number of Voters, Past Winners & Other Facts

Agartala, February 14: The northeastern state of Tripura-the third smallest state in India is set to go on polls on February 18, 2018. The counting for the 60-member Tripura Assembly would be held on March 3. As per reports, a total of 297 candidates are in the fray this time, up by 48 candidates from 249 in 2013. The BJP is contesting for 51 seats while its alliance partner Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) has fielded candidates in nine seats. Meanwhile, the Left is struggling to retain one of its last bastions it has ruled for 25 years.

Tripura is now under the leadership of Manik Sarkar since March 1998. He is a Politburo Member of Communist Party of India (Marxist). In March 2008, Sarkar was sworn in as leader of Left Front, the Tripura coalition government. In assembly elections held in 2013, he became the chief minister for the fourth consecutive time.

During the Assembly Elections 2018, the Left will come face to face with the Right for control of the state on February 18. The Tripura Legislative Assembly has a unicameral legislature. The Assembly consists of 60 members which are elected through polls every five years and earlier if the Assembly dissolves before time. Currently, the Assembly is at Gurkhabasti.

Number of Voters:

As per details by Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sriram Taranikanti, the final electoral rolls of Tripura showed a record increase of the gender ratio in the state to 971 females to 1,000 males.  In 2017 electoral rolls, there were 965 female voters for every 1,000 males.  As per the final rolls, in all 2,569,216 voters including 1,265,785 females have been enrolled in the electoral rolls increasing by 2.52 percent voters from last year's rolls.

As per reports, around 34,845 names were deleted from the electoral rolls due to various reasons, including death and shifting of places. Over 47,800 first time voters under the age group of 18-19 years were included their names in the rolls. As per draft electoral lists published on 24 August last year, the total number of voters in Tripura was 2,505,997 including 1,230,628 women.

Past Winners:

The Legislative Assembly election of 2013 took place in a single phase on 14 February 2013 to elect the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from each of the 60 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) in Tripura. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) won 49 out of the 60 assembly seats, the CPI won only 1 seat while the INC managed 10 seats in the election. Manik Sarkar of the CPI (M) became the Chief Minister of the state for his fourth term.

The CPM won with a thumping 1,059,327 votes, followed by the Congress party with 804,457 votes, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) with 167,078 votes, Communist Party of India (CPI) with 34,500 while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged 33,808 votes while the Independents (IND) settled for 21,126 votes.

Tripura Assembly Election Results 2013 - Party Wise Summary 

As part of its firm commitment towards gender equality and greater constructive participation of women in the electoral process, the Commission has also directed that, to the extent possible, ‘All- women Managed Polling Stations’ be set up in one polling station for each Assembly Constituency where the entire polling staff, including the police and security personnel, shall be women.

Former Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti had informed that the final publication of electoral rolls has been done and added that the total number of electors as per the final rolls for Meghalaya is 18, 30, 104, for Nagaland, it is 11, 89, 264 and for Tripura, it is 25,69, 216. Joti had informed that electronic voting machines and VVPAT will be used on all the seats and the maximum expenditure allowed to a candidate will be Rs 20 lakh.

Of the 249 candidates who contested in the 2013 elections, at least 14 have switched parties in 2018. Eleven Congress candidates from 2013 are contesting the current elections on a BJP ticket including 7 MLAs. Six of the 7 Congress candidates from 2013 had first shifted their allegiance to Trinamool Congress before joining the saffron party.

The three northeast states- Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland are among eight that are scheduled to go to polls in 2018. Apart from the three northern states, elections to the Karnataka, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Assemblies will also be held this year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 14, 2018 04:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).