BJP nominates former CM Biplab Deb for Tripura West, snubs Union minister Pratima Bhoumik

Speaking to reporters in Agartala on Saturday evening about the candidate list, Tripura BJP president Rajib Bhattacharya said, “The BJP is always ready for any poll. Delhi has asked us to increase our vote by 10 per cent. I can confidently say that Lotus (BJP party symbol) will bloom in 3,349 booths in the Lok Sabha. The BJP workers are working, keeping the target in my mind.”

He said he was not aware of any reason to replace Bhoumik with Deb.The central parliamentary board took the decision and perhaps it was taken for the state’s benefit, he said.

The BJP state chief also said that the opposition TIPRA Motha party has supported the nominations and added that he is confident that the BJP would get tribal support.

“We shall gift two lotuses to Modiji. Candidate for the East constituency will be declared tomorrow or the day after tomorrow”, he said.

Bhattacharya thanked PM Modi for choosing Biplab Kumar Deb as Lok Sabha candidate and said the party felt a leader of his stature was needed in Tripura.

Referring to the bypoll in the Ramnagar Assembly seat that fell vacant due to the death of MLA Surajit Datta, the party president said, “We are also prepared for the bypoll. Our parliamentary board discussed the candidate. You can know after the declaration of the poll”.

Biplab Kumar Deb, who hails from Tripura’s Gomati district, went away to Delhi after his college education in the 1990s.

He returned to Tripura in 2015 as convener of the BJP’s flagship Mahasampark Abhiyan. Over the next three years, he rebuilt the rank and file of the saffron party in Tripura and eventually defeated the then ruling CPIM-led Left Front government in the 2018 Assembly elections.

He was unceremoniously dropped from his post in 2022 for undisclosed reasons and his close aide and the then Rajya Sabha MP Dr Manik Saha replaced him.

Deb was later nominated as the Rajya Sabha Parliamentarian after Saha stepped down.