Agartala, Mar 2 (IANS): Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha was re-elected from the Town Bordowali seat for the second time after defeating his nearest Congress opponent Ashish Kumar Saha by a margin of 1,257 votes.

Manik Saha was first elected to the state Assembly in the bypoll held in June last year by defeating Ashish Kumar Saha with a margin of 6,104 votes.

The 70-year-old BJP leader, who was also the state unit chief of the BJP and Rajya Sabha member for a brief period, took oath as the Chief Minister in last year's May 15, a day after former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb resigned from the top post following the direction of the BJP's central leaders.

BJP sources said that Manik Saha is likely to be the Chief Minister of the second BJP government, which first came to the power in the 2018 Assembly polls thrashing the CPI(M) led Left Front after 25 years (1993-2018).

Besides Saha, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath (from Mohanpur seat), Pranajit Singha Roy (from Radhakishorepur seat), Food and Civil Supplies Minister Manoj Kanti Deb (from Kamalpur seat), Tripura Assembly Deputy Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen (from Dharmanagar seat) have also been re-elected to the state Assembly.