Accompanied by Biplab Deb, other state leaders, Manik Saha submitted his nomination papers
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, and 23 others filed their nomination papers on Monday for the June 23 bypolls to four assembly seats.
Mr Saha - who replaced Biplab Deb in Mid-May, a year before the state polls - is presently a Rajya Sabha member. In his career spanning three decades, it is the first time that he would contest a direct election. He is contesting from Bordowali assembly constituency.
The Chief Minister has to be a member of the state Assembly within six months to retain his position.
Accompanied by Biplab Deb and other state party leaders, Mr Saha submitted his nomination papers today.
He is up against six other candidates, including Ashish Kumar Saha (Congress), Raghunath Sarkar (Forward Bloc), Sanhita Bhattacharya (Banerjee) of Trinamool Congress.
Out of 24 candidates contesting in the four assembly seats, there are eight women candidates.
The BJP and Trinamool fielded two women candidates each while the CPI-M-led Left parties and Congress nominated one women candidate each.
Multi-cornered contests would be witnessed in all the four assembly seats -- Town Bordowali, Agartala, Jubarajnagar and Surma (SC) - between the nominees of the BJP, CPI-M led Left Front, Congress, Trinamool, and other smaller parties.
The Congress has forged an alliance with the leading tribal-based party -- Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance headed by Tripura's royal scion, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman in Surma seat, reserved for the Scheduled Caste.
The by-polls were necessitated after the resignation of three BJP MLAs, and the death of CPI-M legislator Ramendra Chandra Debnath.