Agartala, Feb 2 (IANS): A total of 259 candidates, including 29 women nominees, will contest the February 16 Assembly elections in Tripura, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gitte Kirankumar Dinkarrao said here on Thursday.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, 297 candidates, including 24 women, had fought the elections to the 60-member Tripura Assembly.

On the last day of withdrawal of nominations on Thursday, 32 candidates from various parties withdrew their candidatures, Dinkarrao said.

The CEO said that of the 259 candidates, the highest number of 55 candidates have been put up by the ruling BJP, followed by CPI-M (43), Tipra Motha Party (42), Trinamool Congress (28), and Congress (13).

Even as the BJP allotted five seats to its junior ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), the latter has fielded six candidates.

At Ampinagar in southern Tripura, the BJP has nominated Patal Kanya Jamatiya while the IPFT has fielded sitting MLA Sindhu Chandra Jamatia.

A total of 58 Independent candidates and 14 nominees from various smaller parties are also contesting the elections scheduled on February 16.