2008 Tripura Legislative Assembly election

The 2008 Tripura Legislative Assembly election took place in a single phase on 23 February to elect the Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from each of the 60 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) in Tripura, India. Counting of votes occurred on 7 March 2008; with the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in this election, the results were ready within the day.

2008 Tripura Legislative Assembly election

← 2003 23 Feb 2008 2013 →
60 seats in the Assembly 31 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Manik Sarkar Samir Ranjan Barman Party CPI(M) INC Leader's seat Dhanpur Bishalgarh Seats before 38 13 Seats won 46 10 Seat change 8 3 Popular vote 903,009 684,207 Percentage 48.01% 36.38%
Tripura District Map
Chief Minister before election Manik Sarkar CPI(M) Elected Chief Minister Manik Sarkar CPI(M)

Tripura

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))-led alliance, the Left Front, retained control of the Assembly by winning 49 seats and securing a more than a two-thirds majority.^[1] This provided the CPI(M) with a fourth consecutive governing term.^[2]

CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tripura for the fourth time on 10 March 2008 along with 11 other cabinet Ministers.^[3]

Contesting parties

312 candidates registered to contest the election.

Party		Symbol	Alliance	Seats contested
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))		Left Front	56
	Communist Party of India (CPI)		Left Front	2
	Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)		Left Front	2
	All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)		Left Front (contested alone)	12
	Indian National Congress (INC)		UPA	48
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)		NDA	49
	All India Trinamool Congress			22
	Amra Bangali			19
	Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation			14
	Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT)			11
	Lok Janshakti Party		UPA	8
	Nationalist Congress Party		UPA	5
	Janata Dal (United)		NDA	2
	Party of Democratic Socialism (India)		Left Front (contested alone)	1
	Independents (IND)			62
Total				313

Highlights

Election to the Tripura Legislative Assembly were held on February 23, 2008. The election were held in a single phase for all the 60 assembly constituencies.

Participating Political Parties

#	Partytype Abbreviation	Party
National Parties
1	BJP	Bhartiya Janta Party
2	CPI	COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA
3	CPM	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
4	INC	Indian National Congress
5	NCP	Nationalist Congress Party
State Parties
6	INPT	Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra
State Parties - Other States
7	AIFB	All India Forward Bloc
8	AITC	All India Trinamool Congress
9	CPI(ML)(L)	Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation)
10	JD(U)	Janata Dal (United)
11	LJP	Lok Jan Shakti Party
12	RSP	Revolutionary Socialist Party
Registered (Unrecognised) Parties
13	AMB	Amra Bangalee
14	PDS	Party For Democratic Socialism
Independents
15	IND	Independent

^[4]

No. of Constituencies

Type of Constituencies	GEN	SC	ST	Total
No. of Constituencies	33	7	20	60

^[4]

Electors

	Men	Women	Total
No.of Electors	1,038,782	999,219	2,038,001
No.of Electors who Voted	942,604	916,518	1,859,122
Polling Percentage	90.74%	91.72%	91.22%

^[4]

Performance of Women Candidates

	Men	Women	Total
No.of Contestants	282	31	313
Elected	57	03	60

^[4]

Background

Except for a one term period of Congress government between 1988 and 1993, the CPI(M) was the dominant governing party in the state since 1978.

The previous elections to the 9th Tripura Legislative Assembly was held in 2003 and the term for this Assembly was set to expire on 19 March 2008. The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced fresh elections for the 10th Tripura Legislative Assembly on 14 January 2008. Of the 60 constituencies for the 2008 election, 20 were reserved for Scheduled Tribes and seven reserved for Scheduled Castes. Elections in all polling stations were held using electronic voting machines.

The CPI(M), headed by Manik Sarkar, had formed the Government in the 9th Tripura Assembly after being re-elected in 2003. The Left Front had won 41 of the 60 seats.^[5]

Campaign

A total of 313 candidates contested this election.

Election Day

Election Day (23 Feb 2008) was peaceful and passed without any incidents of violence in this state that has traditionally faced insurgency from militant outfits. Unprecedented security arrangements were in place for this election - 20,000 paramilitary personnel from the Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Central Reserve Police Force supported by air surveillance.^[6]

Voter turnout across the state was over 90%, a record high for any state in India. This beat the previous record of around 86% set in Sikkim during the Assembly Elections in 2002.^[7][8]

Results

Party	Seats Contested	Seats Won	No. of Votes	% of Votes	% in Seats contested	Seats Forfeited	2003 Seats
Bharatiya Janata Party	49	0	28,102	1.49%	1.79%	49	0
Communist Party of India	2	1	27,891	1.48%	48.65%	0	1
Communist Party of India (Marxist)	56	46	903,009	48.01%	51.21%	0	38
Indian National Congress	48	10	684,207	36.38%	44.38%	1	13
Nationalist Congress Party	5	0	1,882	0.10%	0.92%	5	0
All India Forward Bloc	12	0	2,961	0.16%	0.74%	12	0
All India Trinamool Congress	22	0	6,620	0.35%	0.92%	22	0
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation	14	0	5,261	0.28%	1.11%	14	0
Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra	11	1	116,761	6.21%	38.23%	2	6
Janata Dal (United)	2	0	1,081	0.06%	1.74%	2	0
Lok Janshakti Party	8	0	2,738	0.15%	1.07%	8	0
Revolutionary Socialist Party	2	2	31,717	1.69%	52.58%	0	2
Amra Bangalee	19	0	5,532	0.29%	0.96%	19	0
Party of Democratic Socialism	1	0	2,062	0.11%	6.13%	1	0
Independents	62	0	61,010	3.24%	4.94%	58	0
Total	313	60	1,880,834			193
Source: ECI[5]

Results by constituency

• Winner, runner-up, voter turnout, and victory margin in every constituency^[9]

Assembly Constituency		Turnout	Winner					Runner Up					Margin
#k	Names	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%
1	Simna	92.82%	Pranab Debbarma		CPI(M)	14,439	54.86%	Rabindra Debbarma		INPT	11,108	42.2%	3,331
2	Mohanpur	92.85%	Ratan Lal Nath		INC	14,349	50.74%	Subhas Chandra Debnath		CPI(M)	12,993	45.95%	1,356
3	Bamutia	93.91%	Haricharan Sarkar		CPI(M)	17,324	52.07%	Prakash Chandra Das		INC	14,944	44.91%	2,380
4	Barjala	93.47%	Sankar Prasad Datta		CPI(M)	24,853	48.93%	Dipak Kumar Roy		INC	24,255	47.76%	598
5	Khayerpur	92.35%	Pabitra Kar		CPI(M)	18,833	49.67%	Ratan Chakraborty		INC	17,832	47.03%	1,001
6	Agartala	88.15%	Sudip Roy Barman		INC	21,019	50.82%	Bikash Roy		CPI(M)	19,194	46.41%	1,825
7	Ramnagar	89.19%	Surajit Datta		INC	16,569	52.22%	Ratan Das		CPI(M)	14,198	44.74%	2,371
8	Town Bordowali	89.3%	Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar		INC	14,190	54.43%	Dr. Sudhir Chandra Majumder		CPI(M)	10,965	42.06%	3,225
9	Banamalipur	87.44%	Gopal Chandra Roy		INC	12,354	54.68%	Prasanta Kapali		CPI	9,546	42.25%	2,808
10	Majlishpur	94.06%	Manik Dey		CPI(M)	17,745	50.88%	Dipak Nag		INC	16,497	47.3%	1,248
11	Mandaibazar	90.67%	Manoranjan Debbarma		CPI(M)	16,605	49.44%	Jagadish Debbarma		INPT	15,638	46.56%	967
12	Takarjala	90.79%	Niranjan Debbarma		CPI(M)	12,470	50.9%	Rajeshwar Debbarma		INPT	11,008	44.93%	1,462
13	Pratapgarh	92.75%	Anil Sarkar		CPI(M)	32,105	53.79%	Bimal Chandra Barman		INC	25,055	41.97%	7,050
14	Badharghat	92.96%	Dilip Sarkar		INC	29,724	48.43%	Subrata Chakraborty		CPI(M)	29,349	47.82%	375
15	Kamalasagar	94.13%	Narayan Chandra Chowdhury		CPI(M)	17,042	52.52%	Matilal Sarkar		INC	14,209	43.79%	2,833
16	Bishalgarh	94.52%	Bhanu Lal Saha		CPI(M)	15,457	50.5%	Samir Ranjan Barman		INC	14,543	47.51%	914
17	Golaghati	93.29%	Kesab Debbarma		CPI(M)	13,990	54.04%	Ashok Debbarma		INC	11,003	42.51%	2,987
18	Charilam	92.28%	Narayan Rupini		CPI(M)	14,216	49.44%	Narendra Chandra Debbarma		INPT	13,729	47.75%	487
19	Boxanagar	94.46%	Sahid Chowdhury		CPI(M)	13,791	49.55%	Billal Miah		INC	13,099	47.06%	692
20	Nalchar	95.09%	Sukumar Barman		CPI(M)	14,748	52.4%	Sukla Das		INC	12,216	43.4%	2,532
21	Sonamura	95.22%	Subal Bhowmik		INC	14,837	50.24%	Subal Rudra		CPI(M)	14,008	47.43%	829
22	Dhanpur	94.83%	Manik Sarkar		CPI(M)	17,992	52.91%	Shah Alam		INC	15,074	44.32%	2,918
23	Ramchandraghat	91.85%	Padma Kumar Debbarma		CPI(M)	11,611	59.22%	Animesh Debbarma		Independent	5,108	26.05%	6,503
24	Khowai	95.86%	Samir Deb Sarkar		CPI(M)	15,385	54.33%	Arun Kumar Kar		INC	12,062	42.59%	3,323
25	Asharambari	92.5%	Sachindra Debbarma		CPI(M)	13,765	56.78%	Amiya Kumar Debbarma		INPT	9,234	38.09%	4,531
26	Pramodenagar	93.23%	Aghore Debbarma		CPI(M)	14,972	54.%	Animesh Debbarma		Independent	10,153	36.62%	4,819
27	Kalyanpur	93.75%	Manindra Chandra Das		CPI(M)	12,653	50.13%	Kajal Chandra Das		INC	11,791	46.72%	862
28	Krishnapur	90.36%	Khagendra Jamatia		CPI(M)	13,325	51.57%	Sabda Kumar Jamatia		INC	11,508	44.54%	1,817
29	Teliamura	92.68%	Gouri Das		CPI(M)	14,816	50.1%	Ashok Kumar Baidya		INC	13,647	46.15%	1,169
30	Bagma	93.21%	Naresh Chandra Jamatia		CPI(M)	14,979	52.05%	Rati Mohan Jamaitia		INC	13,064	45.39%	1,915
31	Salgarh	94.62%	Partha Das		RSP	17,235	55.6%	Mira Das		INC	12,284	39.63%	4,951
32	Radhakishorpur	94.67%	Joy Gobinda Deb Roy		RSP	14,482	49.39%	Pranjit Singha Roy		INC	14,015	47.8%	467
33	Matarbari	95.31%	Madhab Chandra Saha		CPI(M)	15,601	50.18%	Bibhu Kumari Devi		INC	14,381	46.26%	1,220
34	Kakraban	93.81%	Kashab Chandra Majumder		CPI(M)	16,659	58.87%	Rajib Samaddar		INC	10,638	37.6%	6,021
35	Rajnagar	94.17%	Sudhan Das		CPI(M)	22,111	56.58%	Bikash Chandra Das		INC	14,843	37.98%	7,268
36	Belonia	95.25%	Basudev Majumder		CPI(M)	15,971	50.47%	Amal Mallik		INC	14,652	46.3%	1,319
37	Santirbazar	93.86%	Manindra Reang		CPI	18,345	52.81%	Gouri Sankar Reang		INC	15,562	44.8%	2,783
38	Hrishyamukh	95.24%	Badal Chowdhury		CPI(M)	19,610	60.16%	Dilip Chowdhury		INC	11,849	36.35%	7,761
39	Jolaibari	93.49%	Jashabir Tripura		CPI(M)	13,864	59.44%	Brajendra Mog Chowdhury		INC	8,356	35.82%	5,508
40	Manu	94.45%	Jitendra Chaudhury		CPI(M)	21,100	56.07%	Thaikhai Mog		INC	14,940	39.7%	6,160
41	Sabroom	93.86%	Rita Kar (Majumder)		CPI(M)	19,181	57.05%	Premtosh Nath		Independent	10,874	32.34%	8,307
42	Ampinagar	91.28%	Daniel Jamatia		CPI(M)	14,284	53.26%	Nagendra Jamatia		INPT	11,340	42.28%	2,944
43	Birganj	95.62%	Manoranjan Acharjee		CPI(M)	18,262	52.05%	Jawhar Saha		INC	15,607	44.48%	2,655
44	Raima Valley	92.39%	Lalit Mohan Tripura		CPI(M)	19,120	52.58%	Rabindra Debbarma		INPT	15,256	41.95%	3,864
45	Kamalpur	93.19%	Manoj Kanti Deb		INC	11,839	48.2%	Bijoy Lakshmi Singha		CPI(M)	11,704	47.65%	135
46	Surma	91.5%	Sudhir Das		CPI(M)	14,359	51.88%	Sukha Ranjan Das		INC	11,711	42.31%	2,648
47	Salema	91.28%	Prasanta Debbarma		CPI(M)	14,354	54.17%	Jadu Mohan Tripura		INC	10,559	39.85%	3,795
48	Kulai	90.72%	Bijoy Kumar Harngkhawl		INPT	14,944	46.87%	Sabitri Debbarma		CPI(M)	14,829	46.51%	115
49	Chawamanu	87.99%	Nirajoy Tripura		CPI(M)	12,329	48.17%	Shyama Charan Tripura		INPT	11,228	43.86%	1,101
50	Pabiachhara	92.17%	Bidhu Bhusan Malakar		CPI(M)	17,354	51.1%	Phanindra Das		INC	14,888	43.84%	2,466
51	Fatikroy	92.51%	Bijoy Roy		CPI(M)	14,457	51.04%	Sunil Chandra Das		INC	12,144	42.88%	2,313
52	Chandipur	92.38%	Tapan Chakraborty		CPI(M)	17,565	56.44%	Rudrendu Bhattacharjee		INC	11,531	37.05%	6,034
53	Kailashahar	91.83%	Birajit Sinha		INC	17,019	49.86%	Jayanta Chakraborty		CPI(M)	16,088	47.13%	931
54	Kurti	89.58%	Faizur Rahaman		CPI(M)	14,337	49.79%	Abdul Matin Chowdhury		Independent	11,109	38.58%	3,228
55	Kadamtala	88.07%	Bijita Nath		CPI(M)	12,656	45.16%	Jyotirmoy Nath		INC	12,528	44.7%	128
56	Dharmanagar	90.05%	Biswa Bandhu Sen		INC	15,987	51.65%	Amitabha Datta		CPI(M)	13,577	43.86%	2,410
57	Jubarajnagar	92.95%	Ramendra Chandra Debnath		CPI(M)	14,710	51.22%	Biva Rani Nath		INC	13,094	45.59%	1,616
58	Pencharthal	89.79%	Arun Kumar Chakma		CPI(M)	17,210	50.54%	Sushil Kumar Chakma		INC	14,460	42.47%	2,750
59	Panisagar	89.26%	Subodh Chandra Das		CPI(M)	13,942	49.8%	Radhika Ranjan Das		INC	12,234	43.7%	1,708
60	Kanchanpur	88.57%	Rajendra Reang (Tripura politician)		CPI(M)	13,952	48.06%	Sanjit Kumar Reang		INC	13,449	46.33%	503