New Delhi: The 60-member Tripura Assembly goes to the polls on February 18, 2018. A total of 297 candidates are in the fray for the 2018 elections, up from 249 in 2013.
The big change in the 2018 elections is that it is no longer a duel between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — the (CPI(M)) and the Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leaving no stone unturned to capture this one of the two remaining Left bastions in India.
One of BJP's strategies in Tripura (and also in many other states going to the polls), where it traditionally didn't have a base, has been to attract members of other political parties into its fold.
Of the 249 candidates who contested in the 2013 elections, at least 14 have switched parties in 2018. Eleven Congress candidates from 2013 are contesting the current elections on a BJP ticket including 7 MLAs. Six of the 7 Congress candidates from 2013 had first shifted their allegiance to Trinamool Congress before joining the saffron party.
A couple of BJP candidates from 2013 are also contesting the 2018 elections under a different symbol.
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