NEW DELHI: The first BJP government in Tripura, headed by Prime Minister Biplab Deb, appears to have been going through bad times, with rival faction in the newly formed party in the northeastern state demanding a change in leadership or negotiating a bigger role in the current regime.
Must be seen if central leaders of the BJP decide on some movements to appease them or are able to reject the rebellion in the ranks that has been brewing against Deb from the rival camp, most of which come from Congress.
A group of about eight state legislators, led by Agartala MLA Sudip Roy Barman, have been camping here since last Wednesday, according to party sources. The rebel group has also met with the general secretary (organization) of the BJP, BL Santosh, who has assured them that they will send someone to the state and address their complaints, according to the sources.
The rebels landed here days after Deb himself spent more than a week in Delhi, assessing his party’s central leaders on the situation on the ground in Tripura.
The son of Tripura’s former chief minister, Sudhir Roy Barman Roy, Sudip has been a chief ministerial aspirant since joining the BJP, switching sides in Congress, just before the 2018 assembly elections along with his supporters. The rebel group led by him is demanding a change of leadership in the state or at least negotiating some key ministerial posts, it is known, and Deb is expected to shake up her cabinet anytime later. the Durga Puja season.
According to sources, there are between 12 and 15 members of the People’s Liberation Army in the state meeting with him and at least two other ministers in Deb’s cabinet, waiting behind the scenes in the rebel camp.
With the leader of the BJP, Ram Madhav, who took care of the northeastern states on behalf of the central leadership, having been transferred out of the task in the organizational reorganization of the party at the national level, the rebels saw an opportunity to draw the attention of the central leadership on their demands, party insiders say.
Roy Barman, who was upset that Deb was named prime minister after the saffron party won the majority in the state with 35 out of 60 seats, was removed from his cabinet post as health minister shortly after 2019. Lok Sabha polls, with accusations of sabotage against him from his rival camp in BJP. Now that the Covid situation in the border state is steadily getting worse for a while, he has been lashing out at Deb on the issue since the prime minister has held the health portfolio ever since. According to sources, Roy Barman has been in contact with the IPFT (Tripura Indigenous People’s Front), a tribal party that the BJP had courted before the assembly elections, with eight MLAs in the assembly.
Therefore, some political movement is expected in the state as soon as the holiday season ends early next month.
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