Guwahati: Top Tripura BJP leaders including the state’s chief minister Manik Saha attended a high-level meeting in Delhi on Sunday that Union Home Minister Amit Shah convened to discuss ways to halt the state’s BJP’s factional strife and to plan for the upcoming assembly election.
Besides BJP national president JP Nadda, party’s Tripura president Rajib Bhattacharjee, deputy chief minister Jishnu Dev Varma, union minister Pratima Bhowmik, Rajya Sabha MP and former Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb also attended the meeting.
According to reports, BJP central authorities have voiced deep dissatisfaction toward the lobbying among the leaders and factional politics within the Tripura BJP.
The BJP has been struggling with groupism in Tripura since Biplab Kumar Deb was fired as chief minister in June of this year.
According to reports, His successor Manik Saha has encountered resistance from the government, the bureaucracy, and some party leaders.
Reports claim that former Tripura CM Biplab Deb and union minister Pratima Bhowmik are in charge of a parallel government within the BJP in the state and are using their influence to undermine Manik Saha, the current chief executive.
“Biplab and Pratima had defeated the chief minister’s nominees in Tripura Cricket Association, and both of them were also found reluctant in sharing dais with the chief minster. Biplab is undermining the present CM in the social media, and mobilising MLAs against him, about which the central leaderships were informed repeatedly,” a senior party functionary was quoted by UNI on condition of anonymity.
The reports added that BJP national president JP Nadda and Amit Shah had given clear orders to the party’s leaders to avoid factionalism and work together to defeat the opposition by democratic means.
Shah advised the CM to take immediate action to stop the violence and attacks against the opposition as well as the state’s deteriorating law and order situation.
“Apprehending a poll alliance between the CPI-M and the Congress against BJP, the leaders suggested holding the elections to the 60-member Assembly in two phases. The mobilisation of manpower, election machinery, and resources to counter the opposition would be comprehensive and better if the election is held in more than one phase,” the leader said withholding his identity.
Numerous BJP survey reports predicted a poor outcome for the party in the assembly elections and recommended a number of measures, including the replacement of candidates, including ministers and sitting MLAs, in more than 25% of seats. This topic was also discussed in the meeting, the reports added.