Tripura Election Result 2023: Historic Left-Cong Alliance Fails To Stop Saffron Juggernaut As BJP+ Bags 33 Seats

The BJP staged a second consecutive win in Tripura, winning the majority on its own. The Left Front and the Congress that had allied for the first time in Tripura managed to secure only 14 seats.

Tripura CM Manik Saha celebrates the BJP's win in the election, along with other party leaders, at the BJP headquarters in Agartala.

Tripura Election Result 2023: The Bharatiya Janata Party in Tripura on Thursday ensured another term in office, winning 32 seats on its own. The Left Front-Congress alliance, however, failed to ebb the saffron wave as it managed to garner just 14 seats. Debutant Tipra Motha Party, led by the scion of the erstwhile Tripura kingdom's royalty, Pradyot Debbarma, bagged 13 seats.

The BJP's alliance partner in Tripura, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, managed to get only 1 seat. The lone IPFT winner was Sukla Charan Noatia from the Jolaibari constituency.

Soon after winning the elections, CM Manik Saha said: "I thank PM Modi, home minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda and senior leaders for their faith and confidence. Central govt's beneficiary schemes, state govt's works and party workers' hard work played an important role in the victory."

Saha, who won the Town Bardowali constituency by over 1,300 votes, will take oath as the chief minister for another term.  

Early Trends

The BJP was in the driver's seat since morning when the early trends showed it in the lead with majority seats, while the Left-Congress alliance and the regional party Tipra Motha battling for the Opposition's position in the state assembly.

After one hour of vote counting, the BJP-IPFT alliance was leading with 40 seats in the assembly elections, while Tipra Motha was ahead on 13 seats. The Left Front-Congress alliance was leading on 7 seats.

Tripura Exit Poll Predictions

In a surprising turn of events, exit poll results from three different pollsters in Tripura varied substantially. 

The IndiaToday-MyAxis projected the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win between 36-45 seats in the 60-member assembly by garnering 45 per cent of the popular vote. 

The Left-Congress combine was predicted to get meagre 6-11 seats with just 32 per cent of the popular vote, a significant slide from its 43 per cent vote share in 2018. The newly-formed party, TIPRA Motha, founded by former royal Pradyot Kishore Mankiya Debbarma, was expected to gather 9-16 seats from the tribal areas with a concentrated 20 per cent of the vote share.

Meanwhile, the ETG-Times Now poll indicated that the BJP would remain the largest party but with a substantial drawdown from its earlier tally of 36 to just 24 seats. The Left Congress was predicted to get 21 seats, while TIPRA Motha was expected to snatch 14 seats in the tribal areas.

In line with these predictions, the ZeeNews-Matrize exit poll also forecasted that the BJP and its ally would win 29-36 seats in Tripura. The Left Congress was projected to get between 13-21 seats, and TIPRA Motha Party was expected to get between 11-16 seats.

Tripura Legislative Assembly

Tripura held the Legislative Assembly elections on February 16, 2023, to elect all 60 members of the Legislative Assembly. During the polls, 89.90 per cent of 28.13 lakh voters exercised their franchise. The tenure of the 12th Tripura Assembly is scheduled to end on 22 March 2023.

The previous assembly elections were held in February 2018, and after the election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed the state government, with Biplab Kumar Deb becoming the Chief Minister. However, Biplab Deb resigned from the post of Chief Minister on May 14, 2022, and was succeeded by Manik Saha as the new Chief Minister.

In 2022, eight National Democratic Alliance (NDA) members, comprising five Bharatiya Janata Party and three Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) MLAs, resigned and left BJP. Out of these eight, four joined TIPRA, three joined Congress, and one joined the Trinamool Congress.