In Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha submitted his resignation on Friday.
New Delhi:
The BJP held a crucial meeting today regarding government formation in the three northeastern states where the party hopes to form government in the coming days. The big question was Tripura, where call needs to be taken on the Chief Minister post. Sources indicated that Manik Saha is the front-runner, though a section in the state party is rooting for union minister Pratima Bhowmik.
The meeting at the home of the party’s chief strategist Amit Shah was attended by the party chief JP Nadda, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.
Mr Rio, whose party won 25 seats remains the Chief Minister. In Meghalaya too, the senior partner National People’s Party headed by Conrad Sangma will be in the driving seat. Mr Sangma will remain in the top post.
The other crucial question for the meet was the number of berths to be allotted to the BJP in Mehghalaya and Nagaland. Sources indicated that in Meghalaya, one of the two BJP MLAs will get a ministerial berth. The number in Nagaland is yet to be decided.
In Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha submitted his resignation on Friday. Though the BJP had indicated that he will continue in the top post if the party returned to power, the leaner majority of the party compared to 2018 had put a question mark on it.
His detractors have been asking for a change, demanding that Ms Bhowmick be the first woman Chief Minister of Tripura.
Mr Saha’s predecessor Biplab Deb was removed a year before the election when the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the BJP, found out that his brash actions and poor law and order record had caused a dent in the popularity of the party.
Mr Saha, who was swiftly brought into the picture, has made his mark as a genteel leader critical of political violence or hooliganism.
Tripura has also been making headlines recently, with the BJP as recently as yesterday claiming they are ready to resume talks with former royal and Tipra Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore Debbarma.
The tribal party, which emerged as the second-largest in the Assembly polls, has a long-standing demand for ‘Greater Tipraland’ bringing the two parties into a deadlock.
“Tipra Motha has raised certain issues for the development of the tribal people. Without dividing the state of Tripura, we are ready to … talk to them and resolve the grievances of the tribal people. But we cannot talk about Greater Tipraland … Tripura will remain united,” Himanta Sarma said on Saturday.
In Meghalaya, National People’s Party Chief Conrad Sangma has staked claim to form the new government in the state after emerging as the single largest party and will take oath as the Chief Minister on March 7.
Having patched up with the BJP after a pre-election split, Mr Sangma claimed that he has an “absolute majority with 32 MLAs” on his side in the 60-member assembly. The Congress termed the renewed tie-up a “paradox”, noting that the BJP’s central leadership had described Mr Sangma government as one of the “most corrupt” in the country.
Nagaland political stalwart and its longest serving chief minister Neiphiu Rio is also set to assume office as chief minister for a fifth consecutive term after a convincing win for his party and its ally, the BJP. The NDPP-BJP pre-poll alliance contested the Nagaland poll on a 40:20 seat-sharing formula as they did in 2018 with the understanding that Mr Rio will be the face of its new government.
The oath-taking ceremony of chief ministers and other ministers in the northeastern states, set to take place next week, will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who deemed the significant win in the states as a “show people’s strong faith in democracy and democratic institutions in the country”.
