Agartala, Mar 16 (PTI) Of the two parliamentary constituencies in Tripura, all eyes will be on West Tripura Lok Sabha seat where former chief minister and BJP candidate Biplab Kumar Deb is set to take on Congress' state president Asish Kumar Saha.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pratima Bhoumik won the seat with a massive margin and went on to become a Union minister.

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This time, the BJP did not give her a ticket and chose Deb as the party's candidate.

Deb had led the BJP to form its government in the state in 2018 by winning 38 seats in the 60-member assembly. But, he was denied a ticket to contest the last year's assembly elections.

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Of the total 14.61 lakh electors, West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency has a sizable number of tribal and minority voters apart from Bengalis.

In last year's bypolls to two assembly seats, Dhanpur and Boxanagar, the BJP had emerged victorious, amid large-scale rigging allegations by the CPI(M).

However, state BJP leaders are confused as to why the former CM was given the ticket to replace Bhaumik. On the other side, Left-supported Congress candidate Asish Kumar Saha has been working to consolidate the anti-BJP vote bank to reverse the electoral fortunes.

Tripura has another Lok Sabha seat- East Tripura. Elections to two constituencies will be held on April 19 and 26.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)