The ruling BJP on Saturday announced its first list of 48 candidates, dropping six sitting MLAs and fielding 11-woman candidates, while for remaining 12 seats leaders of BJP are now holding talks with their junior ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), which has also been on parlays with the influential opposition tribal-based party Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA) led by former royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma.

As per the list of 48 candidates released from BJP headquarters, New Delhi Chief Minister Manik Saha, who was elected to the state assembly in the June last year by-elections after former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb was removed from the top post in May last year, would contest from the Town Bardowali seat.

Meanwhile, opposition Congress, which would contest the February 16 elections in alliance with the CPI(M) led Left Front parties, announced 17 candidates' names on Saturday. Five Left parties announced the names of 47 candidates on Wednesday, leaving 13 seats to their new ally Congress while dropping eight sitting MLAs. According to the Congress candidates' list, announced by the party's General Secretary in-charge of Central Election Committee, Mukul Wasnik and asper the list sitting party MLA Sudip Roy Barman would seek re-election from the Agartala constituency while state party President Birajit Sinha would contest from Kailasahar. Former Tripura Congress President Gopal Roy would contest from Banamalipur, while ex-MLA Ashish Kumar Saha has been fielded for the Bordowali seat.

Surprisingly, three parties -- BJP, Congress and Forward Bloc -- have nominated their candidates for the Badharghat constituency, traditionally a Congress bastion, from the same family. BJP nominated Mina Rani Sarkar, her elder brother Raj Kumar Sarkar has been fielded by the Congress, while Forward Bloc has nominated their nephew Partha Ranjan Sarkar, a lawyer. All three joined different parties after the death of BJP MLA and former minister Dilip Sarkar, who passed away three years ago and despite the seat adjustments between the Left parties and the Congress, both sides nominated candidates in the SC reserve seat.

However, Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik, who in 2018 assembly polls unsuccessfully contested against former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, would contest election from the same Dhanpur constituency. Tripura state BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee will contest for the first time from Banamalipur seat, from where former Chief Minister and incumbent Rajya Sabha member Biplab Kumar Deb was elected in 2018 assembly polls.

Sitting CPI(M) MLA Moboshar Ali, who was on Friday joined BJP in New Delhi after he dropped from Left Front candidate list, would contest from his old constituency Kailasahar, from where he was elected to the state assembly for the first time on CPI(M) ticket in 2018 polls.

The BJP did not give tickets to six sitting MLAs - Arun Chandra Bhowmik (Belonia), Biplab Ghosh (Matabari), Subhash Das (Nalchar), Mimi Majumder (Badharghat) Birendra Kishore Debbarma (Golaghati) and Parimal Debbarma (Ambasa). All the nine ministers including Chief Minister Manik Saha and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma got the party tickets from their respective constituencies.

However, the name of the candidate in Minister Ram Prasad Paul's constituency in Suryamaninagar was not announced in the first list. Around 15 new faces found places in the first list of BJP candidates. State BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee said that the second list of 12 names would be announced soon.