Surprise choice as CM earlier, Manik Saha cements his position with BJP win

The unassuming Biplab Deb loyalist had only joined the BJP in 2016 — a fact that remained a cause of heartburn among many BJP leaders in Tripura right up to this year’s Assembly elections.

His rise through the ranks, though, has been spectacular. From the head of the “prishta pramukhs”, who act as pivots in the BJP’s electoral machinery, in 2018, he became the president of the cash-rich Tripura Cricket Association in 2019, courtesy the BJP dispensation. When the BJP central leadership sought to rein in CM Deb by using the “one man one post” rule to replace him as the Tripura BJP president in January 2020, Saha was catapulted to the role, before being elected to the Rajya Sabha in March 2022 — the first BJP leader from the state in the Upper House of Parliament.

But that stint was destined to be a short one. By that time, Dr Saha had become the Man Friday of the BJP’s central leadership looking for a quick fix in the state. And so, when in May 2022 — just 10 months before the just concluded Assembly polls — the party sought to replace Deb as CM, the choice was obvious.

Observers say that in the short period he has been in power, Dr Saha has shown signs of shedding the reticence earlier associated with him. He has also come into his own vis-a-vis former CM Deb, long seen as his patron. While Saha was not directly named for CM post by the BJP, the campaign was mostly focused on him, seeking a second term of ‘Modi-Manik Saha sarkar’

Now, having twice defeated three-time MLA Ashish Saha within 10 months, he may have finally shut the mouths of detractors and cemented his place as the unquestioned BJP leader in the northeastern state.