Veteran politician and three-time MLA Ratan Chakraborty are likely to be the new Speaker of the Tripura Assembly as Rebati Mohan Das quit the post last week citing “personal reasons”, party sources said on Tuesday.

Chakraborty, a septuagenarian political leader who joined the BJP in 2017 and was elected to the state Assembly from the Khayerpur constituency in 2018 polls, is a former minister in the Congress-led government (1988-1993).

Party sources said that Chakraborty’s elevation to the Speaker’s post was part of the BJP’s central leaders’ decision to revamp both the government and the party organisation ahead of the 2023 assembly polls.

A good orator, Chakraborty went to Trinamool Congress along with former Tripura Chief Minister, the late Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar but returned to the parent party (Congress) in 2002.

While talking to IANS, Chakraborty said that he would perform whatever responsibility the party bestows on him.

It has been learnt that incumbent Deputy Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen, who also joined the BJP from TMC in 2017, was trying hard to become the Speaker.

Amid open resentment by a section of ruling BJP MLAs and leaders in Tripura led by former BJP Minister Sudip Roy Barman, three new faces — Ram Prasad Paul, Sushanta Chowdhury, Bhagaban Chandra Das – last week (August 31) were inducted into the Tripura cabinet in its first expansion after the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) alliance assumed office in March 2018 after defeating the Left parties in the assembly polls.

According to political experts, the ruling BJP has been trying hard to accommodate senior party leaders in various ministerial and important posts and also revamping the party in Tripura, where the Assembly elections are less than 18 months away.

In view of the dissidence by a section of ruling BJP MLAs and leaders since 2019, four senior central party leaders led by the party’s North East Zonal Secretary, Organisation, Ajay Jamwal arrived in the state last week for a week-long visit to quell the internal dissents and also to plug the shortcomings, both in the government and the organization.