In yet another political setback following its recent disappointment in the ADC elections, the ruling BJP-backed lawyers' platform suffered a decisive defeat in the elections to the prestigious Tripura Bar Association. The Left-Congress-backed Samvidhan Bachao Mancha (Save Constitution Forum) emerged victorious, securing 10 of the 15 executive committee seats.
The BJP-supported Ainjibi Unnayan Mancha (Lawyers' Development Forum) managed to win only five seats, all in the general member category. The Left-Congress alliance captured the key posts of President, Secretary and Assistant Secretary.
Polling was held on Saturday morning, while counting commenced at 3 PM and continued until around 11:30 PM. From the initial rounds, candidates of the Save Constitution Forum established a commanding lead over their BJP-backed rivals.
Pritha Deb Pal of the Samvidhan Bachao Mancha won the President's post by defeating independent candidate Mrinal Kanti Biswas by 23 votes, while BJP-backed candidate Subrata Debnath finished third. For the Secretary's post, Bhaskar Debbarma registered a convincing victory over BJP-backed candidate Bidyut Sutradhar by a margin of more than 110 votes. Mallika Saha and Bhavani Ranjan Bhattacharya were elected Assistant Secretaries, while Jibankrishna Sen secured the Vice-President's post.
The Ainjibi Unnayan Mancha's only success came in the general member category, where Kishalay Roy, Arpan Das, Ruthi Debbarma and Anirban Lodh secured victories.
The defeat has triggered fresh political discussions, particularly because the BJP had invested significant effort in the election campaign. Despite being the ruling party and deploying senior leaders and members of its Legal Cell to campaign extensively among lawyers, the BJP failed to gain control of the nearly 125-year-old Tripura Bar Association.
The most notable defeat came in the Secretary's contest, where Bidyut Sutradhar, an Additional Public Prosecutor and BJP-backed candidate, trailed throughout the counting process. Bhaskar Debbarma established a substantial lead from the very first round and maintained it comfortably until the end.
Similarly, in the presidential contest, independent candidate Mrinal Kanti Biswas remained ahead of BJP nominee Subrata Debnath during the initial rounds, pushing the ruling party's candidate to third position and highlighting the extent of the BJP's electoral setback.
Voting began at 9 AM and witnessed enthusiastic participation from the legal fraternity. A total of 555 advocates cast their votes by 1 PM. Separate election camps were set up within the Agartala court premises by both the Samvidhan Bachao Mancha and the BJP-backed Ainjibi Unnayan Mancha. Former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman was among those who exercised their franchise.
The election was closely watched because the Left-Congress alliance had already retained the President and Secretary posts in the previous two terms through Mrinal Kanti Biswas and Kaushik Indu. However, this year the alliance fielded new candidates—Pritha Deb Pal and Bhaskar Debbarma—for the two key positions, a move that reportedly created internal dissatisfaction.
As a result, former President Mrinal Kanti Biswas contested as an independent candidate and was subsequently suspended by the Congress. Tapan Saha also entered the presidential race independently, while Raghunath Mukherjee contested for Secretary after breaking ranks with the Left camp.
BJP leaders had hoped that the divisions within the Left-Congress alliance would split votes and improve their chances of victory. However, the strategy failed to yield results, as the opposition-backed candidates still secured comfortable wins in the key contests.
The BJP-backed forum had fielded Subrata Debnath for President, Bidyut Sutradhar for Secretary, and government counsel Chaitali Bhattacharya for Assistant Secretary. The BJP Legal Cell conducted an intensive campaign, distributing pocket-sized copies of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and organizing meetings and interactions with lawyers across the court premises.
Despite these efforts, the results delivered a clear verdict in favour of the Left-Congress-backed platform, marking another significant political setback for the ruling party after its recent ADC election disappointment and reinforcing the opposition alliance's continued influence within the state's legal fraternity.