The 2023 Tripura Legislative Assembly elections were held on 16 February 2023 to elect all 60 members of the Tripura Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 2 March 2023.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won a simple majority, defeating its rivals Secular Democratic Forces and the Tipra Motha Party. Tipra Motha Party won 13 seats at its debut and became the largest opposition party in Tripura.
Background The tenure of 12th Tripura Assembly was scheduled to end on 22 March 2023. The previous assembly elections were held in February 2018. After the election, Bharatiya Janata Party formed the state government, with Biplab Kumar Deb becoming the Chief Minister.
Biplab Kumar Deb resigned from Chief Minister post on 14 May 2022 and he was succeeded by Manik Saha as the new chief minister.
TTAADC elections Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council elections were held in April 2021, in which a new Tripuri outfit, the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, formed by a scion of the erstwhile royal family of Tripura, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma, won an astounding victory, drubbing both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with the TIPRA and its ally the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra winning a total of 18 out of the 28 elected council seats. The BJP was restricted to 9 seats and the CPI(M) was completely washed out, unable to win any seats, losing their supermajority of 100% seats in the council.
Major political defections In 2022, 8 National Democratic Alliance (5 Bharatiya Janata Party and 3 Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) MLAs resigned and left the BJP, out of which 4 joined TIPRA, 3 joined the Indian National Congress, and 1 joined the Trinamool Congress (albeit later resigned from the party). There have been defections in the TTAADC where BJP MDC leader Hangsha Kumar Tripura joined TIPRA.
Schedule The election schedule was announced by the Election Commission of India on 18 January 2023. Poll event Schedule Notification date 21 January 2023 Last date for filing nomination 30 January 2023 Scrutiny of nomination 31 January 2023 Last date for withdrawal of nomination 2 February 2023 Date of poll 16 February 2023 Date of Counting of Votes 2 March 2023 Date of Oath taking 8 March 2023 1st Cabinet Meeting 9 March 2023
Parties and alliances National Democratic Alliance
Reports emerged in late January in which the Tipra Motha Party was in talks for a possible alliance with the BJP and IPFT. During this time the Tipra Motha Party and the IPFT held talks for a possible merger. However last minute reports later stated that BJP talks with TMP fell off while BJP announced to continue alliance with IPFT, BJP announced that the party was still against IPFT's demand for Tipraland and that the party would be allotted 6 seats as per the alliance agreement.
colspan="6" National Democratic Alliance Party Flag Symbol LeaderSeats contested Bharatiya Janata Party Manik Saha 55 Indigenous People's Front of Tripura Prem Kumar Reang 6 Total 61
Secular Democratic Forces
In early January reports emerged that the Congress and CPI(M) had begun talks of a possible alliance between the parties to unitedly defeat the incumbent government (NDA). Congress and CPI(M) had initially held talks with the Tipra Motha Party however both parties later backed out of the talks as each party did not want to change its ideological stance for the alliance with each other. The TMP later announced it would be contesting alone in the upcoming election while on 14 January 2023, the CPI(M) and the Congress announced to enter into seat sharing agreement for the upcoming assembly elections. General Secretary of the CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury said the main purpose of organising this united front between opposition parties was to defeat the BJP. On 25 January 2023, Left Front convenor Narayan Kar announced seat sharing formula : CPI(M) – 43 seats, Congress – 13 seats, CPI – 1 seat, RSP – 1 seat, AIFB – 1 seat and independent – 1 seat. After the Congress announced candidates for 17 seats, Left Front filled candidates in all 60 seats (CPIM – 56, CPI – 1, RSP – 1, AIFB – 1, Independent -1). Later after CPI(M) stated it would withdraw 13 candidates and allot the seats to the INC, however INC stated they were looking for 17 seats. Post discussions INC agreed to 13 seats however they were given preference in choosing the seats in which they want to contest.
Purushuttam Roy Barman, independent candidate of SDF from Ramnagar was also supported by the Tipra Motha Party against the BJP.
colspan="7" Secular Democratic Forces Party Flag Symbol Leader Alliance Seats contested Communist Party of India (Marxist) Jitendra ChaudhuryLF 43 Communist Party of India Judhisthir Das 1 Revolutionary Socialist Party Dipak Deb 1 All India Forward Bloc Paresh Chandra Sarkar 1 Independent Purushuttam Roy Barman 1 Indian National Congress Birajit SinhaUPA 13 Total 60
Others + Party Flag Symbol Leader Seats contested Tipra Motha Party Pradyot Debbarma 42 Trinamool Congress Pijush Kanti Biswas 28 Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation Partha Karmakar 1
Candidates District ConstituencyNDASDFTMP+ No. Name Party Candidate Party Candidate Party CandidateWest Tripura1Simna (ST)Binod DebbarmaKumodh DebbarmaBrishaketu Debbarma2MohanpurRatan Lal NathPrasanta Sen ChowdhuryTapas Dey3Bamutia (SC)Krishnadhan DasNayan SarkarNitai Sarkar4Barjala (SC)Dilip Kumar DasSudip Sarkar5KhayerpurRatan ChakrabortyPabitra Kar6AgartalaPapiya DattaSudip Roy Barman7RamnagarSurajit DattaINDPurushuttam Roy BarmanTMP supports IND8Town BordowaliManik SahaAshish Kumar Saha9BanamalipurRajib BhattacharjeeGopal Roy10MajlishpurSushanta ChowdhurySanjoy DasSamir Basu11Mandaibazar (ST)Tarit DebbarmaRadhacharan DebbarmaSwapna DebbarmaSipahijala12Takarjala (ST)Bidhan DebbarmaShyamal DebbarmaBiswajit KalaiWest Tripura13Pratapgarh (SC)Rebati Mohan DasRamu Das14Badharghat (SC)Mina Rani SarkarPartha Ranjan SarkarSipahijala15KamalasagarAntara Sarkar DebHiranmoy Narayan DebnathAshish Das16BishalgarhSushanta DebPartha Pratim MajumderMd Shah Alam Miah17Golaghati (ST)Himani DebbarmaBrinda DebbarmaManav DebbarmaWest Tripura18SuryamaninagarRam Prasad PaulSusanta ChakrabortySipahijala19Charilam (ST)Jishnu Deb BarmanAshok DebbarmaSubodh (Khatung) Debbarma20BoxanagarTaffajal HossainSamsul HaqueAbu Khayer Miah21Nalchar (SC)Kishor BarmanTapan Das22SonamuraDebabrata BhattacharjeeShyamal Chakraborty23DhanpurPratima BhoumikKoushik ChandaAmiya NoatiaKhowai24Ramchandraghat (ST)Prasanta DebbarmaRanjit DebbarmaRanjit Debbarma25KhowaiSubrata MajumdarNirmal Biswas26Asharambari (ST)Jayanti DebbarmaDilip DebbarmaAnimesh Debbarma27Kalyanpur-PramodenagarPinaki Das ChowdhuryManindra DasManihar Debbarma28TeliamuraKalyani RoyAshok Kumar BaidyaAbhijit Sarkar29Krishnapur (ST)Bikash DebbarmaSwasthi DebbarmaMahendra DebbarmaGomati30Bagma (ST)Ram Pada JamatiaNaresh JamatiaPurna Chandra Jamatia31RadhakishorpurPranjit Singha RoySrikanta Datta32MatarbariAbhishek DebroyPranajit RoyBir Noatia33Kakraban-Salgarh (SC)Jitendra MajumdarRatan Kumar BhowmikKshir Mohan DasSouth Tripura34Rajnagar (SC)Swapna MajumdarSudhan DasAbhijit Malakar35BeloniaGautam SarkarDipankar Sen36Santirbazar (ST)Pramod ReangSatyajit ReangHarendra Reang37HrishyamukhDipayan ChowdhuryAsoke Chandra MitraArup Deb38Jolaibari (ST)Sukla Charan NoatiaDebendra TripuraGaurab (Shihanu) Mog39Manu (ST)Mailafru MogPravat ChowdhuryDhananjoy Tripura40SabroomSankar RoyJitendra ChaudhuryGomati41Ampinagar (ST)Patal Kanya Jamatiya Parikshit Kalai Pathan Lal JamatiaSindhu Chandra Jamatia42AmarpurRanjit DasParimal DebnathAshi Ram Reang43Karbook (ST)Ashim TripuraPriyamani DebbarmaSanjay Manik TripuraDhalai44Raima Valley (ST)Bikas ChakmaPabin TripuraNandita Debbarma Reang45KamalpurManoj Kanti DebRubi GhoshMeri Debbarma46Surma (SC)Swapna Das PaulAnjan DasShyamal Sarkar47Ambassa (ST)Suchitra DebbarmaAmalendu DebbarmaChitta Ranjan Debbarma48Karamcherra (ST)Brajalal DebnathDiba Chandra HrangkhawlPaul Dangshu49Chawamanu (ST)Sambhu Lal ChakmaJiban Mohan TripuraHongsa Kumar TripuraUnakoti50Pabiachhara (SC)Bhagaban Chandra DasSatyaban DasGobinda Das51Fatikroy (SC)Sudhangshu DasSubrata DasBilas Malakar52ChandipurTinku RoyKrishnendu ChowdhuryRanjan Sinha53KailashaharMoboshar AliBirajit Sinha North Tripura54Kadamtala-KurtiDilip TantiIslam Uddin55BagbassaJadab Lal NathBijita NathKalpana Sinha56DharmanagarBiswa Bandhu SenChayan Bhattacharya 57JubarajnagarMalina DebnathShailendra Chandra Debnath58PanisagarBinay Bhushan DasShital DasJoy Chung Halam59Pencharthal (ST)Santana ChakmaSadhan Kumar ChakmaHollywood Chakma60Kanchanpur (ST)Prem Kumar ReangRajendra ReangPhillip Kumar Reang
Issues
10323 Teachers batch In 2017, a Tripura High Court order was confirmed by a Supreme Court bench that declared the recruitment of teachers in batches between 2010 and 2013 to be "unconstitutional" because of a policy that gave preference to poor and senior candidates. The confirmation had happened a few months before the 2018 Tripura Legislative Assembly election and the Bharatiya Janata Party had promised that the teachers would be retained if they came to power and their jobs would be saved even if they had to resort to amending the constitution. The teachers, numbering 10,323 extended their support to the BJP in the election and were moved to a contractual status for about two years but were then terminated and replaced with new hires. The teachers faced economic hardships after the sacking and many of them have become indebted and have resorted to menial jobs. Of those sacked, 150 have died with 8 of them confirmed to be suicides, including Rumi Debbarma, a master's degree gold medalist, who was forcefully evicted from an indefinite roadside protest and couldn't take the humiliation of termination.
The teachers had held hundreds of protests, demonstration and rallies, and met with several chief ministers and their cabinets. The protests were met with harsh police actions and cases lodged against several of the teachers. The BJP government in Tripura has shifted its position and refused to reinstate the teachers, one minister Ratan Lal Nath had called them unqualified.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) have extended their support to the teachers and promised to reinstate them in its manifesto. To give assurances to their promise, The Left Front has fielded two of the teachers Sudip Sarkar (CPIM) and Satyajit Reang (CPI) as its own candidates from the constituencies of Barjala and Santirbazar respectively. Former chief minister Manik Sarkar has stated that the order was "most unfortunate" as it overturned a policy that they had introduced to help the weaker sections of society and even alleged that the bench was linked to the Sangh Parivar. The Tipra Motha Party and lawyer Kapil Sibal, an independent MP have also extended their support to the teachers.
Tipraland Movement The Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) has demanded a separate state for the Kokborok-speaking Tripuri population called Tipraland to be created out of the Bengali Hindu majority state from the areas included under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. However the ruling party BJP refuses to bifurcate the state. TIPRA party also has won elections in 2021 Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council election. The TTADC areas have 20 of the 60 Assembly seats in Tripura Legislative Assembly.
Ruling BJP has offered talk with the TIPRA party for their demand. Former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb stated that demands by TIPRA are not possible without BJP. But Chief Minister, Manik Saha said that Tipraland is not possible.
Home Ministry on 25 January 2023 called upon TIPRA leadership to discuss the issue of Greater Tipraland. The talk however did not result in any announcement as the delegates did not reach to any agreement.
Bru refugees