The BJP on Saturday announced its first list of 48 candidates for the Tripura Assembly polls, fielding Union minister Pratima Bhoumik from Dhanpur.

State Chief Minister Manik Saha has been nominated as a BJP candidate from Town Bordowali.

Party leaders Anil Baluni and Sambit Patra on Saturday announced the BJP’s candidates for the Tripura assembly polls at a press conference in the party headquarters here.

Bhoumik is a Union minister in the BJP-led government at the Centre. She is an MP from Tripura.

In the last assembly polls in 2018, the BJP for the time had formed a government in Tripura, considered the left bastion. The CPI(M) had ruled the state unabated for 25 years.

The BJP top brass was in talks with TIPRA, a regional party founded by former Congress leader and royal scion Pradyot Deb Barman, for a prepoll alliance, which has now been ruled out.

The CPI(M) is contesting the state elections in alliance with the Congress this time.

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