BJP fields former CM Biplab Kumar Deb from West Tripura for Lok Sabha elections

During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Biplab Kumar Deb was made BJP’s in-charge for the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced that former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb will be contesting from the Tripura West constituency. The party on March 2 released its first list of 195 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The news was also shared by Tripura’s Chief Minister Manik Saha on social media. The party has not yet named its candidate for the Tripura East constituency.

Deb, the incumbent Rajya Sabha MP, led the BJP to victory in 2018 by decimating 25 years of Left rule in the state. He had earlier served the BJP and the RSS in Delhi. He had won from Banamalipur constituency in Agartala by a massive margin of over 9,500 votes. He had reportedly connected with the youth of the state, over issues such as unemployment and wages.

However, ahead of the 60-seat state Assembly elections in 2023, Deb stepped down. He had said the BJP had decided to give him organisational responsibilities as it wanted a responsible organiser to take charge of the state's affairs ahead of the Tripura Assembly polls.

Born in Tripura, Deb went to work in New Delhi. After returning to Tripura, he joined RSS under KN Govindacharya. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Deb was made BJP’s in-charge for the state. In 2016, Deb took over as BJP’s Tripura chief by displacing the longest-serving party president Sudhindra Dasgupta in the state.

In BJP’s first list for the Lok Sabha elections, as many as 28 women made it to the list, while 47 candidates are aged below 50. Of the total candidates, 27 belong to Schedule Caste, 18 to Schedule Tribe, and 57 to Other Backward Castes. The list, which also focuses on some constituencies in which the BJP is weak or lost in the last two Lok Sabha elections, has been released after a series of deliberations, including a late-night, five-hour meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 29.

The timing of the release may also be BJP’s bid to put pressure on the opposition INDIA bloc which is still finalising seat-sharing deals.