New Delhi: Tripura BJP president Dr Manik Saha was elected to the state's lone Rajya Sabha seat, polling for which was conducted on Thursday.
He polled 40 votes against his rival candidate, CPI(M) nominee Bhanu Lal Saha, who bagged 15, PTI reported, quoting Chief Electoral Officer Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao.
While one MLA — Brishaketu Debbarma from the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), a constituent of the ruling BJP-led coalition — abstained from voting, four seats of the 60-member Tripura assembly are now vacant.
"The Rajya Sabha election was held in a peaceful manner. The result was declared after getting permission from the Election Commission," Dinkarrao said.
A Rajya Sabha representative from a state is elected by the MLAs of that particular state in a polling through proportional representation.
"There was no cross-voting," PTI quoted Tripura Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty as saying. He said all 40 legislators of the BJP-IPFT alliance, barring Debbarma who abstained, supported Saha.
Manik Saha is the first BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Tripura.
Congratulating him on his election, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said: "I believe you will work sincerely in the Upper House of Parliament for the welfare of the people of Tripura under the guidance of Honourable PM Shri Narendra Modi Ji.”
Saha, who quit the Congress in 2016 to join the BJP, was made the party’s state president in 2020, replacing Deb under whose leadership the BJP won the 2018 Assembly elections, ending a 25-year-old Communist rule.
The Left Front currently has 15 MLAs in the House, while the ruling BJP has 33 and its ally IPFT has eight.
CPI(M) candidate Bhanu Lal Saha, who lost to Manik Saha, is an MLA and former finance minister of the state.
The tenure of Jharna Das Baidya, the incumbent Rajya Sabha MP from Tripura, expires on April 2.