Agartala: In a significant development, former Tripura TMC chief Subal Bhowmik and CPI(M) MLA Moboshar Ali joined the BJP on Friday.
Ali was elected to the Tripura Assembly from the Kailasahar constituency in northern Tripura in 2018.
They joined the BJP in the presence of Tripura CM Manik Saha on Friday.
The CPI-M-led five Left parties announced their 47 candidates on Wednesday, leaving 13 seats to their new ally Congress while dropping 8 sitting MLAs including Ali.
The Kailasahar assembly constituency, from where Ali was elected in the 2018 Assembly polls, was allotted to Congress.
Former four-time Chief Minister and CPI-M’s Politburo member Manik Sarkar, party stalwart and former minister Badal Chowdhury, three more former ministers — Tapan Chakraborty, Sahid Chowdhury, Bhanulal Saha — were also dropped on health grounds.
Congress leaders are visibly upset over the meagre allotment of seats to them.
Sounding disappointed, Congress leader and the party’s lone MLA, Sudip Roy Barman, said that they had first demanded 27 seats, and then 23 seats from the Left parties.
“They (Left parties) have taken the decision as per their whims and fancies, we would go as per the wishes of the people,” Roy Barman said.