Tripura polls: Will Modi’s magic play out again?

As dawn alighted on Sunday, the citizens of Tripura began exercising their franchise to elect representatives for the nascent 10th Legislative Assembly. Voting began at 7am Tripura time, and will continue till 4pm. The Tripura Assembly consists of 60 seats. Yet, owing to the death of incumbent legislator Ramendra Narayan Debbarma on February 11, who represented Charilam constituency on behalf of CPI-(M), Tripura would vote for 59 Assembly seats instead. By-polls to the aforesaid constituency would be held on March 12. Overall, 2,536,589 voters will decide the fate of 297 candidates in the fray at 3,214 polling stations across the entire state. Twenty seats have been reserved for the indigenous tribes. The Congress is contesting in all 59 seats in the Tripura polls, while the BJP, forging an alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), has backed 51 candidates. IPFT is contesting in the nine remaining seats. The ruling party BJP carried out its campaign in Tripura with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing four rallies in the state. Political analysts believe that the Left Front in Tripura is facing a run for its money in 2018 by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite its impregnability and incumbency in the highest echelons in state’s power exceeding twin decades. The BJP and the Congress are looking to root out the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has been ruling the state for the past 25 years. Tripura has come a long way since 1972 to optimise its democratic rights today Tripura was a princely state pre-independence in 1947. It acceded to the Indian Union on 15 October, 1949. Following the promulgation of the Indian Constitution on 26 January, 1950, Tripura was constituted as a "Part C" state. However, with the ratification of the States Reorganization Act on November 1, 1956, Tripura evolved into a Union Territory (UT). A "Territorial Council" was constituted with Sachindra Lal Singha as the Chairman. On 1 July, 1963, the Territorial Council was transformed into the Legislative Assembly and Sachin Singha was elevated to the post of chief minister.