Deb consolidates his position after BJP’S civic election victory

Jai Ram Thakur and Basavaraj Bommai, the Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka chief ministers (CMS) from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have not breathed easy after the reverses they suffered in the November by-polls. Like most political parties, the BJP is not kind to losers although Thakur and Bommai may not be axed in the near future. Vasundhara Raje, the former Rajasthan CM, struggled to regain her salience after the defeat in the 2018 state elections. Her Chhattisgarh counterpart, Raman Singh, faded out after his rout, while Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the third angle of a trio of CMS — the last to be blessed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani — might have met with a similar fate had the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not wrested the government in Madhya Pradesh from the Congress by a sleight of hand.

Like Thakur and Bommai, Biplab Deb (pictured) is the other CM to be cherrypicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. However, he is fortunate. After a bumpy start in Tripura, which the BJP swept in the February 2018 Assembly polls, Deb earned his stripes by leading the party to a landslide victory in the elections to the urban bodies last month. Of the 334 seats, the BJP won 329 (including the 112 seats that went uncontested), the Left Front (LF) three, and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) one. The BJP scooped up 59 per cent of the vote share, leaving the LF with 18 per cent and the TMC with 16 per cent, and established its current invincibility in Tripura’s politics.

“It is the victory of the people who chose us under Modi’s leadership and his development agenda,” declared the BJP’S Tripura President Manik Saha, while a state organisational hand said, “It’s due to our organisational structure working right down on the ground.”

Deb, who headed the Tripura BJP when the party strove to find its feet, initially grappled with Opposition from the very colleagues who he had spirited away from the Congress and the TMC before the elections. They publicly assailed his functioning and policies and put forth their complaints before the central leadership, which, interestingly, never denied them a hearing. A few vocal dissidents haunted Deb as he canvassed for votes for the civic polls, which were marked by a stormy prelude.

First, communal violence against Muslims erupted after Hindus were reportedly attacked in Bangladesh during Durga Puja. The Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Hindu Jagran Manch went on the rampage, vandalising mosques and properties owned by Muslims, although the police dismissed the incidents as “fake news and rumours”.

Next, the cops booked over 100 people under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for protesting and merely mentioning the communal violence on social media. The official plea was that the account holders posted “distorted and objectionable news items/statements regarding the clash” for “promoting enmity between religious groups/communities”, against the backdrop of an alleged “criminal conspiracy”.

The state BJP appointed a panel to probe the violence and alleged it was planned and instigated by the TMC to polarise the polity before the elections. The allegation set the stage for fierce clashes between the BJP and the TMC, as the latter seemed set to expand its base in the east. TMC activists alleged they were not allowed to campaign.

The biggest source of satisfaction for the BJP was the “inability” of two of its prominent dissidents, Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Saha, to inflict the degree of damage they were expected to do. It seems that Barman, a former Congressman and now Agartala Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), allegedly worked hard to defeat the BJP candidates in the wards falling in his constituency while Saha, who was elected from Bardowali (west Tripura), tried his best to get the nominees fighting from Deb’s Assembly seat (also in west Tripura) out of the race. Saha had allegedly prevailed on the Congress and LF to withdraw their contestants and facilitate the TMC’S win. That didn’t happen. The chief minister dubbed the duo as “Mir Jafar and Jaichand”.

In his defence, Saha said: “The CM chose the candidates unilaterally without consulting his MLAS. I am in the BJP but not once did he seek my help. Our democratic rights were trampled upon and I won’t keep quiet.”

Barman alleged, “The polls should have been free and fair. Criminals and hooligans managed the show.” The Tripura BJP chief ’s answer was: “People gave their verdict and that’s what matters.”

While the indication was that “saboteurs” like Saha and Barman will be denied the ticket in the next Assembly elections, disciplinary action against them was unlikely. Phanindranath Sarma, Tripura and Assam BJP’S general secretary (organisation), said: “Barman and Saha are history. Action is not necessary because people have sidelined them.” A veteran in the organisation said: “We won’t call them dissidents. They have a point of view we would like to hear,” thereby signalling that although Deb might have consolidated his position for now, the pinpricks will remain.

Doubtless, the BJP noted the TMC’S presence and showing but its assessment was the LF, with a “cadre base and committed votes”, would be the principal challenger in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Biplab Deb is one of the chief ministers cherry-picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah