New Delhi: Ahead of the Tripura assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has finalised the seat-sharing deal with old ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) giving it five constituencies, four less than 2018 polls, news agency PTI reported. Chief Minister Manik Saha made the announcement and added the BJP will contest in 55 constituencies.


Notably, the saffron party had contested the previous state election together with IPFT and the alliance partners fielded candidates in 48 and 12 seats respectively.


The BJP-IPFT alliance swept to power in Tripura, replacing the 25-year-old Left Front regime, winning 43 seats in the 60-member assembly. The BJP had got 35 seats and the IPFT eight.


Pratima Bhoumik lost the 2018 polls to four-time Chief Minister Manik Sarkar from the Dhanpur seat, that has a sizeable number of minority community voters. A year later, she became a Lok Sabha MP and the Minister of State for social justice and social empowerment.


Notably, Bhoumik will again contest from Dhanpur this year.


Earlier in the day, the BJP released the party's first list of 48 candidates for the Tripura Assembly polls in New Delhi, fielding 11 women, including Union Minister Bhoumik.


CM Saha said the names of the remaining seven nominees will be announced later.


The list was announced on Saturday, with only two days left for filing nominations.


Meanwhile, four sitting MLAs were dropped to pave the way for newcomers.


Former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, now a Rajya Sabha MP, did not feature in the list, and BJP state chief Rajib Bhattacharjee will contest from Town Bardowali, the constituency held by the former.


The BJP replaced Biplab Kumar Deb with Manik Saha as the chief minister in May last year. The former CM later became a member of the Rajya Sabha.


State president Rajib Bhattacharjee said, “The tickets were given by the party's parliamentary board after analysing the performance of the ministers, MLAs and leaders. The party's state leadership has no hand in the process.”


The last date for filing nominations is January 30. The polling will be held on February 16 and counting will take place on March 2.