BJP inches ahead in Tripura, Left-Congress trails

Agartala: The ruling BJP crossed the halfway mark in the 60-member Tripura assembly on Thursday afternoon, winning 12 and leading in 21 seats, according to the Election Commission.

The opposition CPI(M) won one seat, and was ahead in 10, while its partner Congress was leading in two seats and won one.

The Tipra Motha was leading in six constituencies and has already won six seats, while BJP's ally IPFT won one seat.

The Trinamool Congress, which tried to expand its footprint in the Northeastern state, has failed to open its account so far.

The margins in some of the seats are very thin, keeping alive the possibility of the tables turning even after over six hours of counting.

Chief Minister Manik Saha won the Town Bardowali seat, defeating his nearest Congress rival Ashish Kumar Saha by 1,257 votes.

CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury won the Sabroom seat by 343 votes, defeating BJP's incumbent MLA Sankar Roy.

BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee was trailing by 1,406 votes in the Banamalipur seat as Congress candidate Gopal Roy took a lead.

Senior Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman was ahead of BJP's Papia Dutta in the Agartala seat by 8,539 votes.

Union Minister Pratma Bhoumik was leading by 3,440 votes over CPI(M)'s Kaushik Chanda in the Dhanpur seat.

State Congress president Birajit Sinha won the Kailashahar seat by 9,686 votes over BJP's Moboshar Ali.

Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath of BJP won the Mohanpur seat by 7,385 votes, while IPFT's Sukla Charan Noatia won the Jolaibari seat by 375 votes.

The counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security. The polling was held on February 16. A total of 89.98 per cent of 28.12 lakh voters exercised their franchise.