The BJP-led winning coalition in Tripura that ended the 25-year-long Left rule in the state appears to have had a rocky start even before the government formation.
The BJP today announced party’s state president and newly elected MLA Biplab Kumar Deb as the new chief minister against the demand for a tribal chief minister by its winning ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura’s (IPFT).
In the 60-member assembly, BJP bagged 35 seats and the IPFT won eight out of the nine seats it contested.
According to reports, IPFT’s alliance was crucial for BJP in sealing the victory in Tripura.
According to a report by The Times Of India, the proposal for a tie-up with IPFT was strongly mooted by Assam leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, who along with party general secretary Ram Madhav, was a key political strategist for the BJP in the north-east. Sarma argued that an alliance with IPFT, despite the risk that it might provoke a backlash from Bengali voters, was a risk worth taking if it could undermine CPM's hold in a significant vote, the report said.
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The report also says that BJP chief Amit Shah had decided that a bold move to snatch the tribal vote and tap its perceived disenchantment with the Left was needed to beat a well-entrenched CPM government in Tripura.
However, after the victory, IPFT had threatened not to be part of the government if its conditions were not met with.
The IPFT had yesterday threatened not to join the government if the party was not given "respectable positions" in the ministry. It would support the government from outside if its conditions were not met, it had said.
Significantly, no MLA of the IPFT was present in today’s meeting.
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Union minister Nitin Gadkari, deputed as observer by BJP president Amit Shah, chaired the meeting today. He later also announced BJP MLA Jishnu Debbarma as the deputy chief minister.
