6 sacked Tripura MLAs join BJP

Agartala: Six Tripura MLAs, who were sacked by the Trinamul and voted for NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, on Monday joined the BJP. The six legislators, led by former leader of the opposition (Congress) in the Tripura Assembly Sudip Roy Burman, were welcomed into the saffron party by minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Agartala, Aug. 7: Six Tripura MLAs, who were sacked by the Trinamul and voted for the NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election, on Monday formally joined the BJP.

The six legislators, led by former leader of the opposition (Congress) in the Tripura Assembly Sudip Roy Burman, were welcomed into the saffron party by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the party’s NorthEast Democratic Alliance convener Himanta Biswa Sarma, state BJP chief Biplab Kumar Deb and state party observer Sunil Deodhar.

Besides Roy Burman, the other MLAs are Ashish Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Biswa Bandhu Sen, Pranjit Singha Roy and Dilip Sarkar. On July 3, Trinamul secretary general Partha Chatterjee had said the party would have no relations with the six MLAs.

The six legislators had quit the Congress and joined the Trinamul in protest against the Congress’ electoral tie-up with the Left, ahead of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election.

In the run-up to the presidential poll, the MLAs had announced that they would not vote for a candidate supported by the CPM and were sacked by the Trinamul.

“When Congress betrayed us in our movement to oust the Left Front government, we thought Mamata Banerjee would help us. But we found that she became close to Sonia Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury,” Mr Burman said.