BJP Wins Muslim-Majority Boxanagar And Dhanpur Assembly Seats In Tripura

The BJP has won the Boxanagar and Dhanpur assembly seats in Tripura by handsome margins. The byelections were held Tuesday (5 September).

The victory in Boxanagar is significant as it is a Muslim-majority seat and had been a CPI(M) stronghold. 

The BJP’s Tafajjal Hossain defeated the CPI(M)’s Mizan Hussain by a margin of more than 30,000 votes. Muslims constitute more than 55 per cent of the electorate of Boxanagar. 

Mizan Hussain, the son of former MLA Samsul Haque whose death in July this year necessitated the byelections, could secure only 3,903 votes as against Tafajjal Hossain’s 34,146 votes.  

In Dhanpur, the BJP’s Bindu Debnath defeated his nearest CPI(M) rival Kaushik Chanda by 18,871 votes. 

Dhanpur was also a CPI(M) bastion till it fell to the BJP in the assembly elections held earlier this year. The BJP’s Pratima Bhoumik had defeated the CPI(M)’s Kaushik Chanda by over 3,500 votes. 

But she resigned as MLA, preferring to retain her Lok Sabha membership to continue as Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment. Her resignation necessitated the byelection. 

The BJP’s victory in both the seats, which fall in the Sipahijala district in western Tripura bordering Bangladesh, was predicted in Swarajya (read this). 

The BJP’s victory in Boxanagar is important because it is a Muslim-majority seat that has remained loyal to the CPI(M). Also, the CPI(M) candidate in Boxanagar (as well as in Dhanpur) was backed by the Congress. 

This is the first time that the BJP has posted a victory in a Muslim-majority constituency.

“Muslims of Boxanagar have sent a very clear-cut message that they do not consider the BJP to be untouchable. By voting overwhelmingly for me, they have sent a clear message to Muslims across the country that the BJP stands for development for all and does not discriminate against anyone,” the victorious Tafajjal Hossain told Swarajya. 

Hossain pointed out that the BJP has been increasing its vote share in Boxanagar. In the assembly elections held earlier this year, Hossain’s vote share was 37.76 per cent while that of the victorious CPI(M) candidate, Samsul Haque, was 50.34 per cent. 

In the 2018 assembly polls, the CPI(M)’s Sahid Choudhury got 57.76 per cent of votes while the BJP’s Baharul Islam Majumder got 34.45 per cent of votes. And in the 2013 assembly polls, the BJP candidate Mantu Sarkar got a miniscule 1.43 per cent of the votes. 

As for Dhanpur, it has been a CPI(M) bastion since 1972. The Marxists won this seat 10 consecutive times between 1972 and 2018.

Manik Sarkar, the four-time chief minister of the state, had represented Dhanpur for 25 years from 1998. He had defeated Pratima Bhoumik in the 2018 assembly elections (which brought the BJP to power in the state) by a margin of nearly 5,500 votes. 

But in the assembly elections held earlier this year, Bhoumik defeated the CPI(M) candidate, Kaushik Chanda, by 3,500 votes. Manik Sarkar did not contest the assembly elections held earlier this year. 

Tribals constitute 14 per cent of the electorate of Dhanpur. “Tribals have supported me wholeheartedly, as have all sections of the people here. Tribals have realised that only the BJP can fulfil their aspirations,” said Debnath.