Manik Sarkar (born 22 January 1949) is an Indian communist politician who served as the Chief Minister of Tripura from March 1998 to March 2018. He was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In March 2008, he was sworn in as leader of the Left Front, the Tripura coalition government. Following the 2013 Legislative Assembly elections, he became the chief minister for the fourth consecutive time. He served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Tripura Legislative Assembly from 2018 to 2023.
Early life and background
Manik Sarkar was born into a middle-class Bengali family. His father, Amulya Sarkar, worked as a tailor, while his mother, Anjali Sarkar, was a State and later Provincial government employee. Sarkar became active in student movements in his student days, and in 1968, at the age of 19, he became a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was a candidate of the Students' Federation of India throughout his academic life at MBB College, from where he graduated with a B. Com. degree. During his first year at the college there came the turbulent times of the food movement of 1967, campaigning against the policy of the then Congress government of Tripura, and Sarkar threw himself headlong into the related student struggle. His vigorous role in this mass movement led him to join the Communists. Due to his early political exposure, he also became the General Secretary of the MBB College Student Union and was also made the Vice President of the Students' Federation of India. In 1972, at the early age of 23, he joined the State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Around the same time, he was appointed the Chief Whip of the CPI (M). In 1983, he was again elected to the Assembly as MLA from Krishnanagar, Agartala. In the same year, he became the Chief Minister of the state of Tripura. Since then, he was elected to the same position four consecutive times in 20 years.
Election contested
Tripura Legislative Assembly
{| class="sortable wikitable"
! Year
! <small>Constituency</small>
! colspan="2"|Party
! Votes
! %
! Opponent
! colspan="2"|<small>Opponent Party</small>
! <small>Opponent Votes</small>
! %
! <small>Result</small>
! Margin
! %
|-
! 2018
| rowspan="5"|Dhanpur
|
| 22,176
| 54.43
| <small>Pratima Bhoumik</small>
|
| 16,735
| 41.08
|
| 5,441
| 13.35
|-
! 2013
| 21,286
| 57.1
| rowspan="2"|<small>Shah Alam</small>
|
| 15,269
| 40.96
|
| 6,017
| 16.14
|-
! 2008
| 17,992
| 52.91
| 15,074
| 44.32
|
| 2,918
| 8.59
|-
! 2003
| 15,613
| 55.85
| <small>Dipak Chakraborty</small>
| 11,111
| 39.74
|
| 4,502
| 16.11
|-
! 1998
| 12,771
| 53.9
| <small>Majibur Islam Majumder</small>
| 9,668
| 40.81
|
| 3,103
| 13.09
|-
! 1988
| rowspan="2"|Agartala
| 12,695
| 49.4
| <small>Bibhu Kumari Devi</small>
| 12,776
| 49.72
|
| -81
| -0.32
|-
! 1983
| 10,623
| 52.18
| <small>Promode Ranjandas Gupta</small>
| 9,485
| 46.59
|
| 1,138
| 5.59
|-
|}