New Delhi/Agartala, Jan 28 (TIWN / IANS) The BJP on Saturday released its first list of candidates for 44 of the 60 seats in Tripura Assembly, polls for which will be held on February 18.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest 51 seats, nine seats will be contested by by tribal-run Indigenous People's Front of Tripura, with which the BJP formally announced its alliance on Thursday. 

According to the BJP leaders, the names of party candidates were finalised and announced after the party's Central Election Committee met in New Delhi under the chairmanship of BJP President Amit Shah. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other CEC members also attended the meeting.

The BJP named state unit President Biplab Kumar Deb from Banamalipur, state unit Vice President Subal Bhowmik from Sonamura, state election media coordinator Sushanta Chowdhury from Majlishpur, state unit General Secretary Pratima Bhowmik from Dhanpur, and state unit Secretary Amit Rakhsit from Khowai.

The party also fielded seven sitting MLAs -- Sudip Roy Barman from Agartala, Ratan Lal Nath from Mohanpur, Ashish Kumar Saha from Town Bordowali, Dilip Sarkar from Badharghat (Reserved for Scheduled Caste), Pranajit Singha Roy from Radhakishorepur, Dibachandra Hrangkhwal from Karamchhara (Scheduled Tribe), and Bishwa Bandhu Sen from Dharmanagar.

The counting of votes polled for the 60-member Assembly will take place on March 3.