The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partner Tipra Motha Party (TMP) have finalised a seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming Village Committee (VC) elections in Tripura and will contest the polls together as partners of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The elections are scheduled for September 28 across more than 4,000 seats. A meeting between the two parties, which began at 7 pm on Sunday at a city hotel, concluded at around 3 am on Monday.
Senior BJP leader and Power Minister Ratan Lal Nath, who chaired the meeting, said the two parties had completed discussions on seat sharing.
“Everyone is aware that the Village Committee elections will be held on September 28. The leadership of the BJP and Tipra Motha went to Delhi, where the Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha and Maharaj Pradyot held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the NDA alliance and contesting the elections together,” Nath said.
He said that with nearly 4,597 VC seats to be contested, it was not possible to finalise the arrangement in a single meeting. However, leaders of both parties held detailed discussions and completed the seat-sharing exercise.
“From today, we will start filing nominations. Both parties have their senior leaders involved in the process, and you will get all the details later today. The seat sharing has been done beautifully,” Nath said.
Tipra Motha MLA Ranjit Debbarma endorsed Nath’s statement and said the discussions had been conducted properly and the seat-sharing arrangement had been finalised.
Transport Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Sushanta Chowdhury said the BJP and Tipra Motha leadership had held an extensive meeting and unanimously decided to contest the VC elections together as NDA partners.
“The leadership of both parties held a long meeting and arrived at the decision that BJP and Tipra Motha will fight the upcoming VC elections together as partners of the NDA. The meeting was held in a very positive atmosphere, and the decision was taken unanimously,” Chowdhury said.
He added that the detailed seat-sharing arrangement would be formally announced by the party leadership later on Monday.
