BJP Wards Off Trouble In Tripura, Asks Pratima Bhoumik To Continue As Union Minister

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhoumik, who won a tough fight against the CPI(M) and wrested the Dhanpur Assembly seat from Marxist grip in the just-concluded elections in the state, has resigned from membership of the Assembly. 

The feisty lady, who was projected as a contender for the chief minister’s post by a powerful faction within the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, will continue as Union Minister. 

Bhoumik submitted her resignation letter to pro-tem Speaker Binay Bhushan Das hours after the latter had been sworn in to the post by Governor SN Arya. She said she had been advised by the party’s central leadership to resign as an MLA. 

Bhoumik had won the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the Tripura West seat and became the first from the state to become a Union Minister.  

She was asked to contest from the Dhanpur Assembly seat, long considered to be a Marxist bastion, by the party central leadership.

She fought against stiff odds (read this article in Swarajya) to break the stranglehold of the Marxists and vanquish them. 

The BJP central leadership’s decision to field the Union Minister for Assembly polls in the state was interpreted as its desire to effect a leadership change in the state.

Bhoumik’s decisive win from Dhanpur triggered speculation that she would become the first woman chief minister of the state.

A powerful section of the state BJP owing allegiance to former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb backed Bhoumik for the chief minister’s post. Deb was replaced rather unceremoniously by Manik Saha in May 2022, and though he was given a Rajya Sabha berth later, he has been nursing his wounds. 

The BJP central leadership later had a rethink on making Bhoumik the chief minister and decided to continue with Manik Saha. 

Even after Saha was elected as the BJP legislature party leader, it was widely expected that Bhoumik would be made the deputy chief minister. But even that did not happen.  

The denial of any post to Bhoumik in Tripura triggered a fair amount of churn and her supporters felt it was unfair to make her contest from a tough seat and then leave her in the lurch.

To preclude the possibility of dissenters and disgruntled elements within the state unit aligning themselves behind Bhoumik and challenging Saha, the BJP central leadership decided to ask Bhoumik to resign from her membership of the state Assembly and continue as Union Minister. 

Her resignation for the Assembly will necessitate a bypoll in Dhanpur, a seat which had been represented by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), ten successive times from 1972 to 2018.

Former chief minister Manik Sarkar had represented the seat five times since 1998. 

BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Jishnu Deb Barma, who lost the Charilam seat to Tipra Motha, is expected to contest from Dhanpur. If he wins, he will be re-inducted as the deputy CM.