Agartala, July 2 (IANS): The ruling BJP and its junior partner IPFT will contest against each other in the July 27 three-tier gram panchayat elections in Tripura, leaders of the two parties said on Tuesday.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election committee Chairman Ratan Lal Nath and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) Assistant General Secretary and Spokesman Mangal Debbarma separately told the media that they would field candidates independently in gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads seats.
Debbarma said the IPFT would nominate candidates in 25 per cent of the 6,646 seats in these local bodies.
“No discussion was held between the leaders of BJP and IPFT about the seat adjustments in the panchayat polls,” he said.
Nath said that the BJP has already started fielding candidates in all the seats in gram panchayats (6,111 seats), panchayat samitis (419) and zilla parishads (116).
“There would not be any alliance in the elections with the IPFT. The IPFT can field their candidates in the panchayat polls,” said Nath, who is also the Education and Law Minister of the BJP-IPFT coalition government in Tripura.
The Tripura Election Commission last week announced elections to 591 gram panchayats, 35 panchayat samitis and eight zilla parishads.
According to the election schedule, the last date of filing of nominations is July 8. The last date of withdrawal of candidature is July 11. Counting of votes will take place on July 31.
