Agartala, June 28: In an unexpected move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday postponed its much-anticipated presidential election for the Tripura Pradesh unit. The election notification, issued earlier in the day, was withdrawn within a few hours without an official explanation from the party.
Sources within the party, however, revealed that the postponement was due to the unavailability of Union Tribal Welfare Minister Jual Oram, who had been appointed as the election officer for the Tripura presidential poll. Oram’s prior commitments reportedly clashed with the scheduled timeline of the election process.
According to the initial notification issued by Returning Officer Samarendra Chandra Deb, the state president election was scheduled to be held on June 29. As per the schedule, the election process would have commenced on June 27 with the issuance of the poll notification and publication of the State Electoral College list. Nomination papers were to be filed and scrutinized in the subsequent days, with the name of the new BJP Tripura President expected to be declared by 3:00 PM on June 29.
This election was to mark the final phase of the BJP’s internal organisational polls in Tripura. Earlier, the party had successfully conducted elections for Mandal-level presidents followed by the appointment of district presidents across the state.
Currently, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajib Bhattacharjee holds the position of Tripura BJP President. His replacement or reappointment was expected to be decided through this now-postponed election.
The BJP is yet to announce a revised schedule for the presidential election, though party insiders suggest that a new date may be declared shortly, depending on the availability of the election officer and alignment with national leadership directives.
