Tripura Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha Nominated For Tripura West Seat

Tripura Congress President Ashish Kumar Saha has been fielded as the Congress candidate to contest the Lok Sabha election from the Tripura West seat. After roughly 70 years, Congress and the Left parties have joined hands for the two Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Left Front has been contesting elections since 1952 against the Congress.

Saha was among the six MLAs from Congress who joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) over dejection, with the Congress setting up an alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the West Bengal legislative assembly elections of 2016. He has also served as the MLA for Town Bordowali from 2013 to 2018.

Saha was also among the six MLAs who, in 2017, quit TMC to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After being elected to the state assembly on the BJP ticket in 2018, Saha quit the party. He rejoined Congress in 2022.

In 2016, Saha demanded the expulsion of Tripura’s Forest and Rural Development Minister, Naresh Jamatia, after his alleged involvement in a sex scandal surfaced. “In crimes against women in the state, not only the supporters and leaders of the ruling party are involved, but also elected people’s representatives,” Saha said, as quoted in The Indian Express.

Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency has over 30 assembly segments, including the capital Agartala, Mandaibazar, Barjala, Simna, Khayerpur, and Golaghati, among others. The Tripura constituency had been under the governance of the CPI (M) from 2009 until 2014, with the party securing an overwhelming margin in both years. However, in 2019, the BJP’s Pratima Bhoumik secured 5.7 lakh votes with a huge margin, beating Congress candidate Subai Bhowmik’s win of 2.6 lakh votes.

Congress has secured the Lok Sabha seat of Tripura West four times: in 1957, 1967, 1989, and 1991. Votes from the tribal community and the SC community are instrumental in the political scene in Tripura. Over ten percent of the voters in the constituency are Muslims.

In the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, the faceoff will be between the BJP candidate and former Tripura Chief Minister, Biplab Kumar Deb, and state Congress President, Ashish Kumar Saha.