Tripura CM’s rally on Dec 13 cancelled following intervention of BJP national president: Dy CM

AGARTALA

The political drama over Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb’s call for a rally to seek people’s mandate took a new turn on December 10 following the intervention of the National President of the BJP, JP Nadda.

Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarma on Thursday informed that Nadda and the newly appointed prabhari (in charge) of Tripura, Provari Binod Sonkar, had spoken to Deb and asked him not to go ahead with the rally on December 13.

The Chief Minister of Tripura had recently invited people to attend a rally at Agartala, seeking their mandate to enable him to continue serving the state as the CM.

This ‘call for a rally’ was criticised by the CPI (M) and the Indigenous People Front of Tripura (IPFT), who is also an ally in the BJP-led government in the state.

The IPFT had, on Wednesday, asked Deb not to drag the government into this internal mess.

Addressing media persons in Agartala on Thursday afternoon, the Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Debbarma confirmed that the event on December 13 has been cancelled.

A section of BJP functionaries and their supporters had, on Saturday, raised ‘Biplab Hotao, Tripura Bachao’ (Expel Biplab, Save Tripura’) slogan at the State Guest House when BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh and newly appointed prabhari (in charge) of Tripura, Provari Binod Sonkar was taking stock of organisational activities.

Reacting to this, Biplab Kumar Deb had, on Tuesday, sought ‘people’s mandate’ to remain as the Chief Minister of Tripura.

This was soon followed by a series of discussion between the CM and the BJP leaders of the state who rushed to his residence since Wednesday to convince him to cancel the event.

The two-day meeting at the CM’s residence witnessed the absence of BJP MLAs Sudip Roy Barman, Sushanta Chowdhury, Ramprasad Pal, Ashish Saha, Ashish Das, among others. They have reportedly been labelled as dissidents.

(Edited by Ibankyntiew Mawrie)