The 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election was held on 18 February for 59 of the state's 60 constituencies. The counting of votes took place on 3 March 2018. With 43.59% of the vote and 50.97% as an Alliance, the BJP secured a majority of seats (36) and subsequently formed the government with Biplab Kumar Deb as Chief Minister. Although the former governing Left Front alliance received 44.35% of the vote, it translated into only 16 seats.
Background The term of the Tripura Legislative Assembly ended on 6 March 2018. Having governed Tripura since the 1998 election, the ruling Left Front alliance, under Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, sought re-election. Meanwhile, the region in general had been under the political control of the CPI(M) for 25 years prior to the election, leading to the region being dubbed a "red holdout" even when the 34-year uninterrupted rule of a CPI(M)-led alliance of Communist parties in West Bengal, the world's longest democratically elected Communist-led government, came to an end in 2011.
Their primary challengers came in the form of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which under the leadership of Narendra Modi was the governing party of India on a national level. The BJP is a Hindu nationalist party, whose policies directly oppose those of the Communists. However, the party claimed no seats, and a mere 1.5% of the vote, in the region's previous election. Once considered a political pariah in Northeast India due to its significant Christian tribal population & the party's association with the Sangh Parivar (which aimed to achieve Hindu unity by achieving a Hindi belt centric cultural homogenisation), the BJP following its victory in the 2014 general elections had swiflty formed a coalition of Northeast-centric smaller parties within its larger national coalition to challenge the Congress hold over the region. BJP's first breakthrough in Northeast India came with its victory in Assam's legislative assembly elections in 2016 over issues of Muslim appeasement & an alleged demographic change caused by uncontrolled illegal infiltration of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh. The Bengali Hindu majority of Tripura, whose forefathers had migrated to the state during Partition of Bengal to escape persecution by Bengali Muslims in East Bengal & had been constantly bickering with the Kokborok-speaking native Tripuri population which had led to incidents of bloodshed like the Mandai massacre deeply resonated with BJP's campaign against illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims. BJP's alliance with the Tripuri outfit Indigenous People's Front of Tripura also drew Tripuri votes to itself.
BJP built up its organisation in the state by engineering defections from the Left Front & Trinamool Congress (which in turn was engineering defections from the Congress based on dissatisfaction of local cadre with the party's decision to ally with CPI(M) in 2016 West Bengal legislative assembly election, a notable defector being Sudip Ray Barman). Despite the relatively small size of the state, the election took on additional significance on a national level as it was an acid test to gauge the successes of the BJP ahead of the following year's general election, and a chance to strip the communists, the party's "primary ideological enemy", of its last stronghold.
Prior to the election, a number of workers of the BJP were murdered. The BJP alleged that the murders were committed by CPI(M) members, which the party denies.
With losing this state, the CPI(M) party had only Kerala left under its rule in India.
Schedule The Election Commission of India announced that the Legislative Assembly elections in Tripura would be held on 18 February 2018 and the results would be announced on 3 March 2018.
EventDateDay Date for nominations 24 Jan 2018 Wednesday Last date for filing nominations 31 Jan 2018 Wednesday Date for scrutiny of nominations 1 Feb 2018 Thursday Last date for withdrawal of candidatures 3 Feb 2018 Saturday Date of poll 18 Feb 2018 Sunday Date of counting 3 Mar 2018 Saturday Date before which the election shall be completed 5 Mar 2018 Monday
Electoral process changes VVPAT-fitted EVMs was used in entire Tripura state in all polling stations in the 2018 elections, which was the first time that the entire state saw the implementation of VVPAT.
The election took place in a single phase on 18 February 2018 with 89.8% voter turnout. The results were announced on 3 March 2018.
Contesting parties 297 candidates registered to contest the election.
PartySymbolAllianceSeats contested Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) Left Front 57 Communist Party of India (CPI) Left Front 1 Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) Left Front1 All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) Left Front1 Indian National Congress (INC) UPA59Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)NDA51Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT)NDA9Independents (IND)27Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) 15Tripura People's Party7Amra Bangali 23All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) 24Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)5 Tipraland State Party9Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation 5North East India Development Party1Pragatishil Amara Bangali Samaj1I.P.F.T Tiprahaa (Independent)1Total297
Campaign The other major force in the election was the Indian National Congress, who had taken 36.5% of the popular vote in the region in 2013. They are also, on a wider scale, the largest force in opposing Modi and the BJP in parliament. As such, Rahul Gandhi, in his capacity as the party's leader, campaigned in the region. They were determined to prevent the BJP from seizing control on the region, as such an outcome would represent the "demise of the Left".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended his campaign by stating that Tripura deserves a diamond but in order to get it, it must let go of the manik ('semi-precious stone' in Bengali, also a word play on the name of incumbent CM Manik Sarkar) stuck to it.
Exit Polls Polling firm Date published BJP+ CPI(M)+ INC Others JanKiBaat-NewsX 27 January 2018 35-45 14–23 - - CVoter 27 January 2018 24–32 26-34 0–2 - AxisMyIndia 27 January 2018 44-50 9–15 - 0–3Dinraat27 January 201810-1940-49
Results The incumbent Left Front government was defeated after 25 years of office out of which Manik Sarkar served for about 20 years, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura winning a large majority of seats. The Indian National Congress, which was the second largest party in the 2013 election, lost all its seats and most of its vote share.
Results by alliance and party AlliancePartyPopular voteSeatsVotes%±ppContestedWon+/−NDA Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 1,025,673 43.59% 42.05 51 36 36 Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) 173,603 7.38% 0.21 9 8 8Total1,199,27650.97%41.84604444Left Front Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) 993,605 42.22% 5.89 57 16 33 Communist Party of India (CPI) 19,352 0.82% 0.75 1 0 1 Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) 17,568 0.75% 1.2 1 0 All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) 13,115 0.56% 0.14 1 0 Total1,043,64044.357.84601634None Indian National Congress (INC) 42,100 1.79% 34.74 59 0 10 Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT) 16,940 0.72% 6.87 15 0 All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) 6,989 0.3% 24 0 Independents (IND) 25 0 Other parties and coalitions 0None of the Above (NOTA) 24,220 1.03%Total 2,353,246 100.00 60 ±0Valid votes23,53,24699.81Invalid votes4,4740.19Votes cast / turnout 23,57,720 91.38Abstentions 2,22,3938.62Registered voters 25,80,113
Results by constituency