3 min readAgartalaMar 3, 2023 04:31 PM IST
First published on: Mar 3, 2023 at 12:27 PM IST
The BJP returned to power in Tripura on Thursday with a reduced tally of 32 seats and one of the leaders missing from its list was Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who was one of the key ministers in the previous government and was viewed as having achieved significant success in the departments of finance, power, and rural development.
But his perceived success did not stop the key BJP leader from losing to his TIPRA Motha rival Subodh Deb Barma in Charilam constituency in Tripura West by 858 votes. This was a stunning reversal from five years ago when he won the ST-reserved seat by the biggest margin of the election, 26,580 votes with 89.33 per cent vote share. TIPRA is led by his nephew Pradyot Debbarma.
Following his loss, Varma congratulated his party and ally IPFT but did not comment on his defeat. “My good wishes and congratulations to all the BJP and IPFT candidates who won a stunning victory. Once again double engine Sarkar with Sri Modiji’s blessings,” he said.
Before the elections, when asked about his nephew’s outfit, the BJP leader said it was more hype than anything else and the space for tribal politics was limited. “They have appeal among some youngsters. But this demand (statehood for tribals) is passing.” While it remains to be seen if his assessment is correct in the long run, Dev Varma seems to have underestimated TIPRA Motha’s appeal on his home turf.
Belonging to the erstwhile Tripura royal family, Dev Varma has also been a longtime BJP loyalist, having been part of it much before it even became a player in the state. He joined politics almost five decades ago. Between 1989 and 1993, he was a member of the North-Eastern Council Advisory Committee and was also convenor of the Indian National Council for Art and Cultural Heritage.
After a stint in the Congress, he moved to the BJP in the early 1990s during the Ram temple movement. But the BJP enjoyed little support in Tripura back then. The party accorded him a place in its national council in 1993 and later named him its national general secretary in charge of Tripura. In 1996, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from East Tripura constituency, followed by the 1998 Tripura Assembly elections, and 1999 Lok Sabha elections. While he lost all three times, Dev Varma secured 29 per cent of the votes, the highest as far as the BJP was concerned in Tripura back then.
As the BJP began to make its Northeast push from 2015 onwards, Dev Varma was included in its plans and appointed a member of its core committee. In the 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP projected Dev Varma as its royal trump card against Pradyot who was then in the Congress.
The Deputy CM of Tripura, Jishnu Dev Varma presenting the budget during the budget session of state Legislative Assembly , in Agartala. (Express photo by Abhisek Saha) 
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