Agartala: The Congress has announced the names of 17 candidates for the 60-member Tripura Assembly election slated for February 16.
The party has tied up with CPI-M-led Left parties to fight the forthcoming Assembly election.
The five Left parties led by CPI-M announced the names of 47 candidates on Wednesday, leaving 13 seats to their new ally Congress while dropping eight sitting MLAs.
Congress leaders, who were upset over the paltry allotment of seats by the Left parties, refused to make any comments about the candidates’ list.
Congress leader and the party’s lone MLA in Tripura, Sudip Roy Barman, had said that they had first demanded 27 seats, and then 23 seats from the Left parties.
According to the Congress candidates’ list, announced by the party’s General Secretary in-charge of the Central Election Committee, Mukul Wasnik, Roy Barman would seek re-election from the Agartala constituency while state party president Birajit Sinha would contest from Kailasahar, from where he was earlier elected to the state Assembly.
Former Tripura Congress President Gopal Roy would contest from Banamalipur, while ex-MLA Ashish Kumar Saha has been fielded for the Bordowali seat.
Tripura Chief Minister and BJP nominee Manik Saha and state BJP chief Rajib Bhattacharjee will also contest from Bordowali and Banamalipur seats, respectively.
Interestingly, three parties — BJP, Congress and Forward Bloc — have nominated their candidates for the Badharghat constituency, traditionally a Congress bastion, from the same family.
While BJP nominated Mina Rani Sarkar, her elder brother Raj Kumar Sarkar has been fielded by the Congress, while Forward Bloc has nominated their nephew Partha Ranjan Sarkar, a lawyer.
The trio joined different parties after the death of Congress MLA and former minister Dilip Sarkar, who passed away three years ago.
Despite the seat adjustments between the Left parties and the Congress, both sides nominated candidates in the SC reserve seat.