E-Paper
Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb elected as Rajya Sabha MP
Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb was on Thursday elected to the Rajya Sabha on the lone seat in the state that went for by-election, an expected victory given the Bharatiya Janata Party enjoys a comfortable strength in the assembly
Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb was on Thursday elected to the Rajya Sabha on the lone seat in the state that went for by-election, an expected victory given the Bharatiya Janata Party enjoys a comfortable strength in the assembly.
Deb secured 43 votes and defeated CPM candidate and former finance minister Bhanulal Saha, who got only 15 votes.
The BJP has 36 seats in the 60-member assembly and their alliance partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) has seven; the CPM has only 15 members and Congress one.
According to reports, the sole Congress legislator didn’t cast his vote.
“Gratitude to the BJP and IPFT MLAs of Tripura for electing me as a Rajya Sabha MP. Gratitude to PM Sri @narendramodi Ji, @BJP4India President Sri @JPNadda Ji & HM Sri @AmitShah for giving me this opportunity to represent Tripura in Rajya Sabha. With the blessings of Mata Tripurasundari, I will continue to serve beloved people of Tripura till my last breath,” Deb wrote on his Twitter.
The Rajya Sabha seat fell vacant after Manik Saha resigned to replace Deb as the chief minister.
After spending 16 years in Delhi, Deb returned to Tripura in 2015 as in-charge of BJP’s Mahajansampark Abhiyan barely three years before the state assembly polls.
A year later, he became the state BJP president and in 2018 became the CM after his party came to power for the first time in alliance with a regional indigenous political party IPFT.
After his abrupt resignation on May 14, Deb was hardly seen in political activities in the first few weeks, except with Saha on a few occasions. Incidentally, Saha was once known to be a close aide of Deb.
The Rajya Sabha seat was with Jharna Das Baidya for two terms since 2010. Das sparked off controversy in 2017 by threatening BJP supporters not to spare them if the Left Front come back to power in 2018.
