Agartala, June 4 (IANS): The ruling BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in Tripura for the second-consecutive time.

BJP candidate and former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who secured a record 8,81,341 votes, won the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, defeating state Congress President and party nominee Ashish Kumar Saha by a margin of 6,11,578 votes.

Deb, currently a Rajya Sabha member and former Chief Minister (2018-2022), was for the first time elected to the Lower House of Parliament.

BJP nominee Kriti Devi Debbarman, who bagged 7,77,447 votes, won the Tripura East parliamentary seat defeating CPI(M) nominee Rajendra Reang by a margin of 4,86,819 votes.

Kriti Devi Debbarman is the elder sister of Tipra Motha Party (TMP) supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma.

Nine candidates each contested for the politically-important Tripura West parliamentary seat and the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, reserved for tribals.

Saha and Reang were the nominees of the INDIA bloc.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP nominee and Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik and teacher-turned-politician Rebati Tripura won the Tripura West and Tripura East seats respectively.

The BJP this time dropped both Bhowmik and Tripura.