AGARTALA, March 27 (TIWN): Nominations of five candidates, including one from the IPFT, were cancelled in Tripura for different reasons on Tuesday, an official said.

The rejected candidates include Sukla Charan Noatia (IPFT), Subrata Chakraborty (SUCI-C), Sonacharan Debbarma (Tipraland State Party) and two independents.

"The IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) candidate Noatia's nomination was cancelled as he has been holding the office-of-profit as Chairman of the Tripura Small Industrial Corporation," Mahatme Sandeep Namdeo, returning officer of Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency said. 

However, the nomination of another IPFT candidate Brishaketu Debbarma, an alternative nominee of the party for the seat, was found valid.

Namdeo said 18 candidates of different political parties and independents filed nominations for the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency till Monday and scrutiny of these papers was undertaken on Tuesday in presence of leaders of political parties and Election Commission observers.

The IAS officer, also the District Magistrate and Collector of the West Tripura District, said 13 nominations were found valid after the scrutiny and the remaining five were rejected for a variety of reasons.

The IPFT has fielded candidates in Tripura's two Lok Sabha seats, rejecting dominant partner BJP appeal to not contest the elections.

IPFT president and Revenue Minister Narendra Chandra Debbarma, a candidate from the Tripura East (reserve) seat, said the IPFT is contesting the polls to raise the party's statehood demand in Parliament.

The IPFT has been agitating since 2009 to upgrade the existing Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) to a separate tribal state.

The TTAADC has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area that is home to over 12,16,000 people, mostly tribals.