GUWAHATI: Manik Saha has been sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Tripura on Sunday after replacing Biplab Kumar Deb before the 2023 assembly elections in the state.
Saha’s coronation as the next Chief Minister of Tripura took place after Biplab Kumar Deb tendered his resignation on Saturday. The move came in after Deb held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
Amid high drama, Deb returned to Agartala from New Delhi yesterday along BJP observers Bhupendra Yadav and Vinod Tawde following which the party legislature meet was held.
Once Saha was made the leader of the Tripura’s BJP legislature party, both Deb and Saha met with Governor Arya to make matters formal. Deb formally submitted his resignation to the Governor thereby making Saha the incumbent Chief Minister.
Biplab Deb’s resignation comes at a time when elections are not far off in Tripura. With reports of dissatisfaction within the Tripura BJP unit over Deb’s leadership doing the rounds for quite some time, the BJP high command decided to opt for a fresh face to position the saffron party in a strong manner for the polls next year.
Noteworthy here is that this is the fourth that a CM has been replaced in a BJP ruled state ahead of elections. Prior to this, BJP changed Chief Ministers in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Uttarakhand. All these states are the ones that are soon poised to go to the polls in the near future.
Manik Saha is the president the Tripura unit of BJP and also a Rajya Sabha MP from Tipura. Saha, who is a dentist by profession, was formerly with the Congress.
However, in 2016, he quit the Congress party and joined the BJP. In 2020, Saha succeeded as the Tripura BJP unit’s president and has since then been giving a strong leadership to the BJP’s state unit in Tripura.
Saha has emerged as the new face for Chief Minister while moving ahead over other frontrunners. Noteworthy here is that Saha has won the race against contenders like Union Minister Pratima Bhowick, deputy CM Jishnu Debbarma, Minister Ratan Lal Nath and BJP leader Ratan Chakraborty.
