Tripura had its Assembly elections on February 18, when a whopping 92% of voters turned up to choose their representatives for 59 seats. Counting will begin at 8 am on Saturday.The state has had a Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left government for 25 years, with Chief Minister Manik Sarkar at the helm since 1998.


This time, however, the Bharatiya Janata Party has posed a huge challenge to the CPI(M). The saffron party has tied up with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, which has been demanding a separate state of Twipraland for the Tripuri tribe.


The state has 60 Assembly seats, but voting for the Charilam seat was pushed to March 12 after Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma died while campaigning. Although the exit polls did not clearly forecast who would win, it largely predicted that the BJP will consolidate its position in Tripura. According to all the polls, the BJP will increase it vote share in Tripura immensely.