Tripura Election 2023: 5 Points On Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma

The Tripura Assembly elections 2023 will be held on February 16. Tripura is the first to go into polls among the northeastern states where the Assembly election is scheduled later this month. Elections in Meghalaya and Nagaland will be held on February 27. The results for all three states will be announced on March 2.    

The state is expected to witness an intense fight between Bharatiya Janata Party, which had a historic win in 2018, and the CPI (M)-led Left Front, which ruled the state for 25 years.

Out of the total 60 Assembly seats, the BJP is contesting in 55 constituencies while its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) has fielded candidates in 5 seats.

Deputy Chief Minister and BJP heavyweight Jishnu Dev Varma is contesting from the Charilam constituency.

Here are 5 points on Jishnu Dev Varma:

• Jishnu Dev Varma took charge as Tripura's Deputy Chief Minister in March 2018 when Biplab Kumar Deb was sworn in as the Chief Minister.
• The 65-year-old politician belongs to the royal family of Tripura. He is the uncle of the current head of the royal family Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma, former working president of the state Congress unit and the current chairman of the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA). 
• In the 2018 Tripura Assembly polls, Jishnu Dev Varma won from the Charilam constituency with a margin of over 25,000 votes. He received 89% of the 29,753 valid votes polled in the bypoll. He defeated Arjun Debbarma of the Congress.
• This time BJP has fielded him from his home turf of Charilam (ST) Assembly seat.
• Jishnu Dev Varma did B.A. Honours from Calcutta University.