Tripura Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Diba Chandra Hrankhawl tendered his resignation on Wednesday, barely two months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
“I tendered my resignation due to personal issues,” Hrankhawl, who represented Karamcherra Assembly constituency in Dhalai district, told the reporters after submitting his resignation to the Assembly secretary.
He was seen accompanied by Congress leader Asish Kumar Saha, youth leader Baptu Chakraborty and party spokesperson Prashanta Bhattacharjee during the submission of his resignation. He said that they are his good friends. “ I have good friends in the CPM, Congress and even BJP,” he said.
Asked about his next political move, Hrankhawl said that he is yet to decide on that. “If I take a decision, you all will know about it,” he said.
Hrankhawl was among the six Congress legislators led by Sudip Roy Barman who switched over to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2016 and a year later to the saffron party.
Hrankhawl, a four-term legislator, won his first three elections on Congress ticket and the fourth from the BJP in 2018.
He is the fifth legislator to have quit the BJP in Tripura.
{{/usCountry}}He is the fifth legislator to have quit the BJP in Tripura.
{{/usCountry}}BJP legislator Asish Das quit the party last year to join the TMC. But, he quit the party to join Union minister Ramdas Athawale’s Republic Party of India (RPI).
Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Saha quit the party to join the Congress this February.
Later, both of them re-contested a by-poll where Roy Barman was re-elected from Agartala, his own constituency. But, Saha was defeated by current chief minister Dr. Manik Saha from Bardowali seat. The BJP emerged victorious in the remaining three seats in the bypoll.
In September, Burbu Mohan Tripura quit the saffron party and moved to royal scion Pradyot Kishore Debbarma’s TIPRA Motha party. Three legislators of BJP’s ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura ( IPFT) , Brishaketu Debbarma, Dhananjoy Tripura and Mewar Kumar Jamatia have also moved to the Royal scion’s party since last year.
The BJP-IPFT formed government in 2018 for the first time with 44 seats including 36 seats secured by the BJP and rest eight seats by the IPFT. Currently, the BJP has 34 seats leaving six seats for IPFT.
CPM’s veteran leader Pabitra Kar said, “ The BJP has started losing its ground since last year. They will lose more in the coming days. There is no hope for them in 2023 polls.”
BJP spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty said,” We know that he is suffering from illness for long time and could not perform properly. We feel that he might have resigned due to this. His resignation will not affect our party as the BJP is based on performance only and not dependent on any individual.”