BJP Speaker candidate for Tripura sails through as TIPRA Motha abstains

TIPRA Motha, which had joined CPI(M) and Congress in putting up a joint Opposition candidate, abstained, a move that came days after the BJP made fresh overtures towards party chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma.

Speaker Biswabandhu Sen assumes chair after being elected on Day 1 of the first session of the 13th Tripura Assembly. (Express photo by Debraj Deb)

Senior BJP MLA Biswabandhu Sen was elected Speaker of the newly-constituted Tripura Assembly on Friday even as 13 MLAs of the TIPRA Motha party, the main Opposition in the House, staged a walkout raising objections over seat arrangements and abstained from voting.

The walkout meant that only 46 out of 59 MLAs in the current Assembly cast their votes, resulting in joint Opposition (Motha, CPI(M) and Congress) candidate Gopal Chandra Roy getting just 14 votes, 11 from the CPI(M) and three from the Congress.

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Sen, 69, got 32 votes, Protem Speaker Binoy Bhushan Das informed the House after counting of votes. Apart from being an MLA for five terms, Sen served as deputy Speaker in the last Assembly. Sen, who used to be with the Congress before he shifted to BJP in 2017, is an Arts graduate from Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) College.

As the first session of the 13th state Assembly commenced on Friday, Chief Minister Manik Saha assured full cooperation to the Speaker on behalf of the treasury benches and expressed hopes for healthy democratic discussions in the House.

CPI(M) legislator Jitendra Chaudhary assured cooperation from the Left party but sought support from the Speaker for those who speak on behalf of the “marginalised, poor and neglected people” in the next five years.

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Animesh Debbarma, who represented TIPRA Motha, said raising questions in the Assembly through reference notice, private member resolution etc for the interest of people is the weapon of the Opposition to contribute to democracy and said TIPRA Motha legislators would play the role of a “constructive Opposition” in the House.

According to the latest Assembly composition, the ruling BJP has 31 MLAs. Though the saffron party won 32 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections, Union Minister for Social Empowerment and Justice Pratima Bhoumik, who contested and won from the Dhanpur Assembly constituency, later resigned from her Assembly position to retain her central post.

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BJP’s alliance partner Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) is represented by Shuklacharan Noatia, the lone MLA from the party in the Assembly this time, who is also a minister in the Manik Saha cabinet.

While TIPRA Motha has 13 members in the House, CPI(M) and Congress have 11 and 3 MLAs, respectively.

Incidentally, TIPRA Motha’s absence from the Speaker election came shortly after party chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma shared a photo of his meeting with Assam Chief Minister and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) chairperson Himanta Biswa Sarma earlier Friday morning.

On Thursday, Pradyot had said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had called him in the morning to assure him that the Centre will appoint an “interlocutor” by March 27 for talks on his demand for a constitutional solution for tribals of Tripura.