Agartala: A day after the Election Commission announced by-elections for four Assembly seats in Tripura on June 23, all political parties of the North-eastern states geared up for the by-elections.
The BJP, CPI-M, Trinamool Congress, and the Congress leaders separately on Thursday said that they will announce their candidates by May 30, when the statutory notifications will be issued by the Election Commission (EC), and the process of filing nominations will start.
The by-polls were necessitated after the resignation of three BJP MLAs, and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath.
Amid open resentment by a section of BJP legislators, three MLAs, Sudip Roy Barman (Agartala), Ashis Kumar Saha (Town Bordowali), and Ashis Das (Surma) quit the BJP and the assembly membership following differences with former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who also resigned on May 14 following the instructions of the party’s Central leadership, the exact reason for which is yet to disclose.
Roy Barman, also a former BJP minister, and Saha joined the Congress in February this year while Das joined Trinamool Congress last year.
Elected from the Jubarajnagar assembly constituency six times, Debnath was Tripura assembly speaker multiple times. He passed away on February 2 in Kolkata due to kidney failure.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, who assumed office on May 15, a day after Deb’s resignation, is expected to contest from the Town Bordowali constituency on a BJP ticket as he is not a member of the state assembly.
According to the EC’s schedule announced on Wednesday, the statutory notification would be issued on May 30 and the last date of filling of nomination is June 6.
The scrutiny of nominees will be done the next day. The last date of withdrawal of nomination is June 9. The counting of votes will take place on June 26.