Left Front
Left Front leaders in Agartala announcing the list of candidates for the upcoming elections in Tripura. Photo: Pinaki Das

The ruling Left Front on Tuesday released its list of candidates for the 60-member Tripura Assembly polls, with ten new faces and seven of the nominees being women, two more than the previous list.

In presence of Left Front leaders, CPI-M state secretary and newly elected Left Front’s convener Bijan Dhar on Tuesday announced the list consisting of 57 CPI-M candidates while other alliance parties RSP, CPI and FB has one candidate each.

However, in the 2013 assembly elections, the Left Front partners were given five seats — Communist Party of India – two, Forward Block – one and Revolutionary Socialist Party – two.

According to Dhar the candidates were selected on the criteria of those who have the highest chances of winning.

Among the 60 Left Front candidates, 35-year-old Jhumu Sarkar (Barjala constituency) is the youngest and 79-year-old Nirajoy Tripura (Chawmanu) the oldest. The Left Front has decided to field ten new faces in the upcoming elections.

Meantime, for the first time the CPI-M has, in advance, projected Manik Sarkar as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

He informed that the Left Front shall be fighting the election on the issue of peace, tranquility and harmony. Election in Tripura is slated to be held on February 18.