The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) central leadership has stepped in to iron out differences between Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb and a section of party functionaries, and asked him not to hold a public meeting next week to seek the “people’s mandate” on whether he should continue as CM.
A person aware of the developments said the party is concerned that the ongoing hostility between Deb and senior state leaders, including BJP legislator and former Congress leader Sudip Roy Barman, could adversely impact the party’s performance in the 2023 assembly elections and weaken its hold on the erstwhile Left bastion. The schism in the BJP’s state unit was evident earlier this week, when a section of party leaders raised slogans against the CM during the visit of Vinod Sonkar, the new state in charge.
Though the CM’s team blames the Left cadre, Deb later said he would seek the people’s mandate on continuing in his post. “I’ll go to Vivekananda Maidan on December 13 and ask people of Tripura to tell me whether I should stay as CM. If people don’t support me, I’ll inform the party high command,” Deb told reporters after slogans of “Biplab Hatao, BJP Bachao” (remove Biplab, save the BJP) were raised during Sonkar’s visit. Sonkar, meanwhile, said he and Deb spoke to BJP chief JP Nadda, and the CM should continue to serve the people.
Amid speculation that the CM could be replaced, a second functionary said the central leadership “will not take a hurried decision”.
Differences in the unit have been exacerbated by disagreements between Deb and Barman, who claims to have support of 20 MLAs (in the 60-member assembly) in seeking a change in leadership due to Deb’s “administrative and governance deficiencies”.
