Tripura Panchayat Polls 2024: BJP secures landslide win, bags 97% of the seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday swept the three-tier Panchayat polls in Tripura, winning 97 per cent of seats. The saffron party bagged 71 per cent of the seats in Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis, and Zilla Parishads without any contest. The voting for the remaining 29 per cent seats was held on August 8 and the counting ended on Tuesday. 

The BJP won 584 Gram Panchayats out of 606, 34 of 35 Panchayat Samities, and eight out of eight Zilla Parishads. Out of 96 seats contested in eight Zilla Parishads, the saffron party won 93 seats, while the Congress and CPI(M) emerged victorious in two and one seat respectively, State Election Commissioner Asit Kumar Das said on Wednesday. 

Home Minister Amit Shah expressed gratitude to the people of Tripura for blessing his party with a historic victory, saying the win belongs to them.

In the case of Panchayat Samitis, the state's party won 173 of the total 188 seats where voting was held. The CPI(M) and the Congress bagged six and eight seats respectively. Das said the BJP won 1,476 of the 1,819 Gram Panchayats seats contested. The CPI(M), Congress and the Tipra Motha got 148, 151, and 24 seats respectively. 

While the BJP celebrated the win, the opposition parties said they could not field candidates in 71 per cent of the seats because of the alleged terror tactics of the ruling party. 

However, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said the mandate showed the people continued to keep faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his development programmes. "The BJP won 97 per cent of the seats with huge margins. There must be an effort to win 100 per cent of seats in the Panchayat polls in future." 

BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee said the party's average winning margin stands at 97 per cent. The opposition CPI(M), however, termed the poll verdict as "an alarm call" for the ruling dispensation as the saffron party faced tough fight in those areas where the opposition parties managed to field candidates. 

"One CPI(M) candidate of Zilla Parishad was killed at Rajnagar in South Tripura district by the ruling party’s goons. Despite winning 71 per cent seats, the ruling party terrorized workers of the opposition parties during the election and counting process," Leader of the Opposition in the Tripura Assembly Jitendra Chaudhury said. 

(With inputs from PTI)