AGARTALA: A day after Biplab Kumar Deb resigned from chief minister’s post, Rajya Sabha MP and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dr. Manik Saha was sworn-in as the chief minister of Tripura on Sunday at Raj Bhawan in Agartala.
Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered oath of secrecy to Saha at a brief ceremony at Raj Bhawan. No other minister took the oath along with Saha. According to people familiar with the developments, there is a possibility of a cabinet reshuffle in one or two days.
“The state has seen progress under Biplab Deb ji’s regime. We will continue to work for development of the state under the guidelines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I shall work to prevail law and order situation, “ said Saha after his swearing-in.
Biplab Kumar Deb, the first BJP chief minister of Tripura, who took charge in 2018 ending the Manik Sarkar-led Left regime’s rule, was replaced by the party leadership on Saturday in a surprise move ahead of next year’s assembly polls. After his resignation, Deb said he would now focus to strengthen the party organisation to ensure BJP’s returns to power in 2023.
Tripura witnessed series of protests against Biplab Deb in these four years including slogans such as ‘Biplab Hatao, Tripura Bachao’ by rebels led by former Health minister Sudip Roy Barman who was dropped from the cabinet a year after the BJP came to power in the state. Roy Barman, later this February switched over to the Congress along with another BJP legislator Asish Kumar Saha.
{{/usCountry}}Tripura witnessed series of protests against Biplab Deb in these four years including slogans such as ‘Biplab Hatao, Tripura Bachao’ by rebels led by former Health minister Sudip Roy Barman who was dropped from the cabinet a year after the BJP came to power in the state. Roy Barman, later this February switched over to the Congress along with another BJP legislator Asish Kumar Saha.
{{/usCountry}}A popular dentist, Saha joined the BJP in 2015 and was made chief of the party in 2020. He became Tripura’s first Rajya Sabha MP from BJP this year. During his initial days in the party, he was panna pramukh in-charge of urban areas and also booth management committee in-charge in the 2018 assembly polls.
Prior to BJP’s rule in Tripura, the state was under Manik Sarkar-led Left regime for two decades. Sarkar, the lone politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) from Tripura, became the chief minister in 1998 and served in the position for four terms straight.
He started his political career as a student leader and was seen as the protege of former Chief Minister and communist partiarch in Tripura, late Nripen Chakraborty. He is currently the leader of the opposition of a team of 15 opposition members including himself in the assembly, all of whom are from the CPI-M.