Tripura election results 2023: Tipra Motha in ‘kingmaker’ role, loss for BJP but not big enough

New Delhi: Early trends in Counting of votes is giving exciting twist to numbers in Tripura. First hour of counting showed that it could be a cakewalk for BJP but as it progressed, the race for power is heating up.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), looking to retain Tripura for the second term in state, suffered setback in 2023 elections but the magic figure of 30 is not beyond its reach.

The saffron party is seen losing more than 10 seats, as compared to previous term, but the loss is big enough to dethrone it from power in the state.

The BJP numbers are hovering just around & above the half-way mark, though it went up to 40 in first hour of counting.

Left-Congress alliance is seen retaining its ground with leads in more than 15 seats but the biggest talking point of this election is Tipra Motha party, led by former royal Pradyot Manikya Debbarma.

Despite making its foray in the state assembly elections, the ex-royal led party is leading in as many as 13 seats. Tipra Motha’s big numbers in election debut has prompted election analysts to opined that the party could well play the kingmaker role in government formation.

In 2018 assembly elections, the saffron party had swept elections on 44 seats, in alliance with ally IPFT and ended CPM’s over 3 decades regime in the state.

Tipra Motha has left its alliance options to all parties including the BJP & CPM-Congress alliance. It has put forth its list of conditions for sealing ties with any party.

Though, BJP sounds confident of forming government on its own but reports suggest that backchannel talks are underway to woo the ex-royal’s newbie party.

Before elections, the BJP had reached out to Tipra Motha but the talks failed through because of tribal-dominated statehood demand by the latter.