Agartala, Dec 23 (IANS) More than 93 per cent of new faces were elected as Presidents of the ruling BJP's 'Mandal' committees in Tripura replacing veterans, a party leader said here on Monday.

Tripura state BJP's Returning Officer (RO) for the election of Mandal Presidents, Samarendra Chandra Deb said that out of 60 'Mandal Presidents, 56 are new faces and only four are veteran leaders.

In BJP's organisational structure in Tripura, the party head of each Assembly constituency committee is called as 'Mandal' President. Tripura has a total of 60 Assembly constituencies.

"Out of the 60 'Mandal' Presidents, two are women. They are Swapna Das (Pratapgarh) and Sampa Das (Kamalpur)," Deb told the media.

He said that by the first week of January 2025, district-level committee Presidents would be elected and then the state-level President would be elected. BJP has 10 organisational districts in Tripura.

The Returning Officer said that to participate in the 'Mandal' President election the maximum age of the candidate must be 45 years and those leaders who already completed two terms as 'Mandal' President can not participate in this election process.

Deb said that the party has ensured the participation of all sections of people in the Mandal Presidents elections.

Of the 60 'Mandal' Presidents, 23 per cent belong to tribals, 18 per cent to Scheduled Castes and 36 per cent to the general category," he added.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha in a Facebook post congratulated all the 60 newly-elected 'Mandal' Presidents.

"Many many congratulations and best wishes to the newly appointed Mandal President of Tripura Pradesh of Bharatiya Janata Party. I believe the organisation of Bharatiya Janata Party will be stronger and stronger under your able leadership," CM Saha said.

Meanwhile, during its recent drive, BJP in Tripura almost doubled its membership, compared to 2019, and registered 11.91 lakh members.

BJP leader Bhagaban Chandra Das, who is Tripura state in-charge for the membership drive, said that out of the total of more than 11.91 lakh BJP members, 9.41 lakh people have enrolled their names online while 2.5 lakh have registered on offline mode.

He said that in the previous membership drive in 2019, 6.5 lakh people in Tripura registered their membership.

--IANS

sc/khz