The voters of Tripura have given their verdict and once again voted the ruling coalition back to power. While this again marks a victory for the alliance, it also provides grounds to assess the government’s performance in the State. This time around, the voter choice, seemed to have resulted in lesser seats for the coalition (32 in 2023 vs 43 in 2018). The recent Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey assessed the opinions of the voters in Tripura on the performance of the government in the State.
When it comes to satisfaction with the performance of the ruling alliance with the previous CPM-led government, the difference was marginal. A slightly higher percentage of respondents opined that they felt contented with the performance of the CPI (M)-led Left Front government (55%), as compared to the ruling BJP+IPFT State government (54%) (Table 1).
Additionally, when asked about the performance of the Central government, the opinions seemed strikingly divided, with one-fourth of the voters reporting that they felt fully satisfied and another one-fourth who opined that they felt fully dissatisfied (23%) (Table 2). As highlighted in other articles in this series, the election result highlights the high levels of polarisation in society.
An overall voters’ assessment over which party was better for Tripura presented greater support for the BJP+IPFT government, with over one-third (36%) respondents deeming the coalition to be better suited for the hilly State. Furthermore, three of every ten respondents (30%) opined that the previous CPI (M)-led Left Front was better (Table 3). This was once again reflective of the sharp political polarisation in the State.
There seemed to be a general satisfaction among the voters over the performance of the ruling BJP+IPFT government in the State. However, this satisfaction could also be seen for the previous Left government that ruled the State. What also appeared to be clear was that when it came to the other wheel of the double-engine vehicle, voters seemed to be both satisfied and dissatisfied with the Central government. This could be because of the general lack of support for the model or for the government at the Centre. In the case of Tripura, the support for the alliance outweighed the lack of it, bringing the popular coalition back to power. However, there is an increasing burden of expectation on the new government as it begins its second term.
Aaliyia Malik is researcher at Lokniti-CSDS and Ashutosh Kumar Tiwari is Ph.D. scholar at Department of Political Science, Tripura University, Agartala
