A day after BJP announces Tripura schedule, internal polls halted over differences

Hours after BJP’s internal poll in charge K. Laxman notified the schedule to elect a new president for the Tripura unit of the BJP, the matter was put on hold over differences between Chief Minister Manik Saha and the national leadership over who the sole candidate for the post should be.

On Friday (June 27, 2025), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had issued a schedule for a State wide poll with the result to be announced on June 29th, late evening after a phone call from BJP’s national general secretary (organisation) B. L. Santhosh, a new notice putting on hold the polls was issued by returning officer Samarendra Deb.

Top sources in the party confirmed that there are ongoing differences between Chief Minister Manik Saha who wants to push the candidacy of Tinku Roy, a Minister in his government in the state or spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya. “The sanghathan [party organisation] candidate is however Bhagwan Das who has been a former Minister and is currently an MLA,” said a source. Mr Das is seen to be close to former Chief Minister Biplab Deb, which may have been resented by Mr. Saha.

The differences within Tripura BJP is not the best news for the BJP which has been dawdling over organisational polls for over a year, ever since the results of the Lok Sabha polls were out. Current BJP president and Union minister J. P. Nadda is serving an extension of his term because of the party’s inability to complete the polling process amid growing differences between the BJP and its ideological parent, the RSS over who the next national president of the BJP should be.

Additionally, according to the BJP’s constitution, the national president is to be elected from an electoral college of at least 50% of all newly constituted state and Union Territory party units. Out of the 37 such State and UT units, only 14 State units have reported completion of the electoral process, falling short of the quorum required. With the notification of the Tripura polls on Friday and sources confirming that Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will also complete their poll processes by there were hopes that the technical part of the requirement would be complete before the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

“We expect the Tripura issue to be sorted out soon,” said a source. BJP is still hoping to keep to its deadline.