‘Family first’ in BJP list of bypoll candidates in Nagaland, Tripura

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demonstrated a dynastic streak in naming candidates for the April 9 byelection to Assembly constituencies in Nagaland and Tripura.

On Thursday (March 19, 2026), the BJP named Daochier I. Imchen as its candidate from the Koridang seat in Nagaland and Jahar Chakraborti from the Dharmanagar constituency in Tripura.

The deaths of the BJP representatives from these two constituencies, Imkong L. Imchen and Biswa Bandhu Sen, necessitated the by-elections to Koridang and Dharmanagar, respectively.

Daochier Imchen is the son of Imkong Imchen, a five-time MLA, who passed away in November 2025. Mr. Chakraborti is the son-in-law of Rashik Goswami, among the first BJP candidates to contest elections in Tripura.

Mr. Goswami contested and lost the Dharmanagar seat in the 2003 and 2008 elections, and so did Mr. Chakraborti in 2013. Both were defeated by Sen, who switched over from Congress to the BJP via the Trinamool Congress before the 2018 polls and continued his winning streak in 2023.

Sen, a retired teacher, died of a brain haemorrhage in December 2025.

The 36-year-old Daochier Imchen, who holds an MA in Political Science, joined the BJP in 2023. “I thank the party leadership for reposing faith in me and look forward to contesting the by-election with the support of our party workers,” he said.

Along with Koridang and Dharmanagar, the BJP announced the names of Ritesh Ravi Naik, Veerabhadrayya Charantimath, and Srinivas T. Dasakriyappa for the byelections to the Ponda (Goa), Bagalkot (Karnataka), and Davanagere South (Karnataka) seats, respectively.