The byelection to Tripura’s Badharghat (SC) Assembly constituency in West district on Monday is turning out to be a close contest for the ruling BJP.

The byelection to the constituency, the state’s largest with over 50,000 voters, was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Dilip Sarkar in April. It is poised for a three-pronged contest among the BJP, CPM and the Congress.

With campaigning ending on Saturday, chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, accompanied by candidate Mimi Majumder Das, several MLAs and senior leaders, held a roadshow in the constituency on Friday to a more or less lukewarm response. Deb is convinced the BJP will retain the seat by a larger margin. BJP MLAs from neighbouring constituencies and several ministers have also campaigned for Majumder Das, a retired teacher and former CPM activist.

The Badharghat constituency, which is dominated by voters belonging to the Jaliya Kaibartya, Mahishy-adas, and Kopali communities, has changed hands earlier.

In the controversy-ridden Assembly polls of 1988, Dilip Sarkar of the Congress won the seat by a slim margin. In 1993, he lost to CPM’s Jadav Majumder but won the seat again in 1998. In 2003, CPM’s Subrata Chakraborty won but in the three consecutive polls of 2008, 2013 and 2018, the last time as a BJP candidate, Sarkar retained the seat.

Sarkar’s absence this time is working to the advantage of CPM candidate Bulti Biswas, a councillor of Agartala Municipal Corporation, with support from senior leaders like Manik Sarkar, Badal Chowdhury and Ratan Bhowmik.

“If the election is free and fair, I will definitely win the seat because the BJP government has done nothing over the past year-and-a-half except break promises, cause deprivation and create a fear psychosis among the people,” Biswas said.

Biswas fears the BJP will do what it did in the panchayat and Lok Sabha elections — terrorise people to reduce the election to a farce.

Congress candidate Ratan Das said, “Our vote bank went almost entirely to the BJP last year but now we have to see how much of it we can bring back. Our advantage is that the BJP does not have a committed vote bank anywhere in Tripura. In a fair election, I will have a good chance.”