Agartala, Jan 30, 2023, IANS

Agartala, Jan 30 (IANS): The ruling BJP will improve its 2018 tally when the 60-member Tripura Assembly goes to the polls on February 16, Assam Chief Minister and the saffron partys key strategist in the northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said here on Monday.

From zero seats in 2013, the BJP pulled off a stunning victory in the 2018 Assembly elections, winning 36 seats while its ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) managed eight seats.

Sarma and his Manipur counterpart N. Biren Singh accompanied Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha as the latter submitted his nomination papers from the Bordowali Assembly constituency on Monday, the last day of filling candidatures.

The Assam Chief Minister, who had campaigned for the BJP in the 2018 Assembly polls and has already visited the state thrice in the past two months after sounding of the poll bugle, said that there was fear among the people earlier, but this time peace is prevailing in Tripura due to the good governance of the BJP.

"When I visited Tripura before the 2018 Assembly polls, there were many red offices (CPI-M offices) in Tripura, but now I don't see any such red office in the state. The Congress and the CPI-M's existence in the country is zero, and zero plus zero equals to zero," Sarma said, referring to the pre-poll Congress CPI-M alliance in Tripura.

He said this time also the BJP will get absolute majority on its own.

"People would vote for the BJP on the basis of the performance of the Manik Saha-led Tripura government and the pro-people vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," said Sarma, who is also the convener of the anti-Congress regional set-up, North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).

He said that during the Left regime, government employees had to give huge amounts of subscriptions (to the Left parties), but under the BJP rule, no employees are forced to make any subscriptions to the party.