Agartala, Aug 18: Absence of opposition TIPRA Motha and Congress from the electoral contest for the Tripura by polls paved the way for the CPIM and BJP to engage in a direct political battle. After 2018, this is for the first time the BJP and CPIM entering into a one to one electoral contest.
However, it is still not clear as to how the internal dynamics of the opposition parties would impact the elections but if all the opposition parties could transfer their votes to one bloc, the opposition could have an edge over the ruling party.
The last day of nomination submission passed off Thursday. So far, candidates of only two political parties filed their papers.
Senior TIPRA leader and Leader of Opposition in Tripura Assembly Animesh Debbarma said his party abstained from fighting polls as it does not want the opposition votes to get divided. He also mentioned that contesting elections also requires resources, manpower and other things.
Debbarma, however, did not make it clear on which side they would tilt. To a specific question on whether they would extend support to the CPIM candidate, he said, "Our party will take a decision in the due course of time".
The Congress party, however, has found itself entangled in a political obligation due to the new national opposition front of INDIA. Despite resentment brewing within the party lines, the Congress kept itself out of the electoral battlefield.
TPCC President Asish Kumar Saha has said that the party high command's decision is the final decision.
Amidst the changing political stands of the parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has already started reaching out to the disgruntled leaders of the Congress and other political parties.
The objective is clear, the party in power has been trying to reach each and every anti-Left forces and seeking support to defeat the CPIM. For instance, a host of senior BJP leaders paid a visit to the house of former Minister and Congress leader Billal Miah at his Boxanagar house.
Neither the BJP leaders nor the Mia spoke anything clearly about the meeting. When the BJP leaders said that they met Mia as a part of their public reach out exercise ahead of the elections in the Boxanagar assembly constituency, Mia said that most of the BJP Ministers who visited him at his residence are his former party colleagues.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said, “The BJP is the only party that is genuinely against the Left parties. The Congress has diluted its ideological commitment which is against the Left. A persons who is ideologically against the Left will never vote for the CPIM. BJP is the only platform for them”.
The Minister also said that the results of the by-polls would prove that Left and Congress were no more relevant in the political landscape of the state. “I keep hearing that Boxanagar is a Left stronghold or Dhanpur was under the grip of the CPIM. This is a myth. Dhanpur is the constituency from where former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was elected in successive terms. But, our leader Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik broke that citadel. In this by-elections Boxanagar will also follow the suit”, said Sushanta Chowdhury.
It is pertinent to mention here that, Congress leader Billal Mia had been left sulking within the party as his constituency has been compromised for the second time in a row. In the 2023 general election, Mia had to throw his weight behind the CPIM candidate against his wish to respect the political understanding. He expected that in the by-elections, he will become the combined candidate of Left and Congress but all his hopes turned into disappointment as the CPIM unilaterally took the decision to field late MLA Samsul Haque’s son.