BJP's Manik Saha wins Rajya Sabha polls from Tripura

Agartala (Tripura) [India], March 31 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party state president Manik Saha won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tripura on Thursday.
All BJP and Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) MLAs cast their votes in favour of Saha and he left his rival candidate Bhanu Lal Saha far behind in the race. There was no cross-voting.
Saha's counting agent BJP MLA Sudhanshu Das said 40 legislators including 33 of BJP and seven of the party's alliance partner IPFT voted for the BJP candidate.
"His rival candidate Bhanulal Saha got 15 votes," Das said.
A total of 55 MLAs turned up for voting in the 60-member state assembly. Two BJP MLAs Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Saha had quit the party months back while the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s strength was reduced to 15 after former speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath passed away.
BJP MLA Asish Das was disqualified for "anti-party activities".
IPFT MLA Brishaketu Debbarma, who joined TIPRA recently, did not turn up for the vote.
"The status of Brishaketu Debbarma's membership is not known. He abstained from the polls," Das said.
Manik Saha expressed his gratitude to BJP and IPFT MLAs and said he would try to work hard for the people of the state.
The tenure of incumbent Rajya Sabha MP Jharna Das Baidya will end on April 2. (ANI)