New Tripura govt on March 8
REGIME CHANGE Modi, Shah expected to attend swearingin ceremony; BJP, ally IFPT begin discussion over CM candidate
The new government will be sworn in on Thursday (March 8) in Tripura, where the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance defeated the Communist Party of India (Marxist) government, which was in power in the northeastern state for 25 years.
The BJP and its alliance partner, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), scripted history on Saturday by winning the assembly polls with a twothird majority in the state, ensuring India would now have 15 chief ministers from the party governing at the Centre.
The BJP in 2013 had forfeited its deposit in 49 of the 50 seats it contested, bagging less than 2% of the vote. This time around, it swept to a comfortable majority winning 43 seats with an ally, ousting the long-serving Communist chief minister of the state, Manik Sarkar.
Biplab Deb, a young BJP leader with a background in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is expected to be the state’s new chief minister.
“In Meghalaya d non-Congress govt l d by NPP-UDP-BJP+ will take oath on 6th. To be followed by Nagaland and Tripura on 7-8th,” BJP general secretary Ram Madhav posted on Twitter.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah are expected to attend
AGARTALA:
the swearing-in ceremony.
Union minister of road, transport and highways Nitin Gadkari and tribal affairs minister Jual Oram would arrive in the state on March 6 to discuss the name of the next chief minister with the winning candidates and submit a report to the BJP parliamentary board to choose the new leader.
The party is also considering two indigenous names for the post, said BJP sources, after the IPFT sought its own nominees.
Outgoing chief minister Sarkar submitted his resignation to governor Tathagata Roy in Agartala on Sunday.
“He asked me to continue till the formation of the next government. I am grateful to the people from all sections of the state for extending cooperation to us for 20 years,” Sarkar said after resigning.
The BJP’s success came on the back of anti-incumbency against CPI(M), with a range of groups unhappy with Sarkar.
The saffron party, led by general secretary Madhav and state in-charge Sunil Deodhar, built a robust organisation, stitched alliances, imported leaders from other parties, occupied the entire Opposition space vacated by the Congress and snatched away even old Left loyalists.