Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manik Saha, a dentist-turned-politician who steered the party to power in Tripura, will be taking oath as the Chief Minister of the state for the second consecutive term today.
The oath ceremony will take place at Vivekananda Maidan in Agartala, and will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda, and several CMs of BJP-ruled states. Manik Saha, who led BJP to victory, is a dental surgeon who joined the BJP in 2016 after quitting Congress. He was made party chief of the state in 2020 and elected to Rajya Sabha in March 2022.
He was BJP MP until the change of guard took place last year. In 2022, Saha replaced Biplab Kumar Deb to steer the party in the Assembly polls amid a multi-cornered contest in the northeast state.
Earlier on Monday, Chief Minister-designate Manik Saha called on Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya to stake claim to form the government in the Northeast state.
On Monday, there was a general meeting of all the newly elected BJP MLAs who unanimously proposed the name of Manik Saha for the leader of the legislature party.
“My sincere gratitude to all for electing me as the leader of the legislature party. Under the guidance of PM Narendra Modi ji, we shall work together to build ‘Unnata Tripura, Shrestha Tripura’ and ensure the welfare of all sections of people,” Saha tweeted after the meeting.
Manik Saha on February 3, submitted his resignation to Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya at Raj Bhavan in Agartala. The Governor asked him to continue until the new government is sworn in.
He added that several chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will also join the event.
BJP returned to power in the state by winning an absolute majority.
According to the Election Commission of India, BJP won 32 seats with a vote share of around 39 per cent. Tipra Motha Party came second by winning 13 seats.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) got 11 seats while Congress bagged three seats. The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) managed to open its account by winning one seat.
The CPI(M) and the Congress, arch rivals in Kerala, came together in the Northeast this time in a bid to oust the BJP from power. The combined vote share of CPI(M) and Congress remained around 33 per cent.
The incumbent Chief Minister Saha defeated Congress’ Asish Kumar Saha from the Town Bordowali seat by a margin of 1,257 votes. In the 60-member Tripura assembly, the majority mark is 31.
The BJP, which had never won a single seat in Tripura before 2018, stormed to power in the last election in alliance with IPFT and ousted the Left Front which had been in power in the border state for 35 years since 1978.
The BJP contested 55 seats and its ally, IPFT, on six seats. But both allies had fielded candidates in the Ampinagar constituency in the Gomati district.
The Left contested 47 and Congress on 13 seats, respectively. Of the total 47 seats, the CPM contested 43 seats while the Forward Bloc, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) contested one seat each.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front ruled the state for nearly four decades, with a gap between 1988 and 1993 when the Congress was in power but now both parties joined hands with the intention to oust BJP from power.