After completing Cabinet expansion in Tripura, the BJP is now set to appoint Speaker. Incumbent Rebati Mohan Das on Thursday resigned from his position citing personal reasons.
He submitted his resignation letter to Deputy Speaker Biswabandhu Sen. The name of former Minister and senior BJP MLA Ratan Chakraborty is doing the rounds for the post.
Sources in the BJP said the resignation of Mr. Das was part of party’s ploy to weaken the dissident camp and strengthen the organisation ahead of the Assembly elections due in early 2023. They said the parry is seriously working to make the organisation strong up to the booth level to take on both the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress, the latter has set its eyes on Tripura.
The BJP high command earlier sent a team of four senior functionaries here to oversee changes in the Ministry and the organisation. National general secretaries Ajay Jamwal and Dilip Saikia, northeast in-charge Phanindranath Sarma and Tripura Prabhari (observer) Vinod Kumar Sonkar arrived here on August 30 on a week-long visit.
A day after their arrival, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb included Ramprasad Paul, Bhagaban Das and Sushanta Chowdhury as Ministers in his Cabinet. Mr. Paul and Mr. Chowdhury had previously rallied behind Sudip Roy Barman, who is leading a dissident camp of party leaders and MLAs.
Mr. Barman, who claimed to have received an offer to become a Minister but refused, said he was yet to decide on his political future. He alleged that the BJP-led coalition government has hardly implemented assurances made in the Vision Document released ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections.
