AGARTALA, March 22 - Congress has cleared the name of Maharajkumari Praya Debi as its candidate for East Tripura Parliamentary constituency but is yet to finalise its candidate for the prestigious West Tripura Lok Sabha seat.
The delay in selecting party candidate for West Tripura seat, party sources said, is because of strong resistance from two former PCC president Birajit Sinha and Gopal Roy against candidature of Subal Bhowmik, who has joined the party only few days back.
However, Bhowmik, who was vice president of BJP, appears as a strong contender in the race.
It was the role of new PCC president Pradyot Kishore which had tilted the scale in favour of Bhowmik. The latter had quit BJP and joined his old party Congress on March 18 on the assurance that he would be nominated for the West Tripura seat.
A formal announcement in this regard will be made by the AICC probably on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Pratima Bhowmik, BJP�s candidate for the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat submitted her nomination today. Thousands of supporters had converged on Agartala before a procession started to the office of the DM (West) where the nomination was filed.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Dy CM Jishnu Debbarma joined the procession.
IPFT candidate for West Tripura parliamentary constituency also filed nomination papers to Returning Officer (RO) Dr Sandeep Mahatme here on Friday. Party president NC Debbarma and party general secretary Mever Kumar Jamatia walked with thousands of party leaders and supporters to submit the nomination papers of the party candidate.
