'Many BJP MLAs will quit the party'

'Removing Biplab Deb and replacing him with Manik Saha is a fruitless exercise that the BJP national leadership has indulged in.'
'It is foolish to think that people will forget what these two have done to the state and its people in the last four years.'

Ashish Kumar Saha, who was elected the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Tripura's Town Bardowali, quit the BJP in February along with Sudipto Roy Burman. Saha and Burman -- both former Congressmen who had joined the BJP before the assembly election in 2013 -- returned to the Congress after leaving the BJP.

"Majority of the MLAs and ministers in the state were against Biplab Kumar Deb's appointment. He continued to remain the CM with the blessings of the prime minister and home minister. If Amitbhai asked Biplab to step down, then I think they have realised their mistake. But it is quite late now," Ashish Kumar Saha tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.

Will the BJP benefit by Biplab Kumar Deb's removal and Dr Manik Saha's appointment as chief minister of Tripura?

The four-year rule of Biplab Deb was marked by the politics of vendetta and dictatorship. He had no regard for Constitutional politics.

The police administration and law and order situation under him was terribly bad. Common citizens had to face the injustice and torture of his misrule. He did not allow the Opposition to function democratically.

Given these traits he showed during his rule, popular opinion was going against him in Tripura. This became evident from an internal survey that the BJP national leadership conducted in the state.

The survey made it clear that BJP would be routed in the 2023 assembly election. Perhaps, that could be the reason why he was ejected just a year before the polls.

Does the national BJP leadership believe that Dr Manik Saha will bring about a change within a year and the people of Tripura will vote for the party again in 2023?

(Laughs) Manik Saha was president of the state (BJP<?em>) unit for almost two-and-a-half years. In fact, Biplab Deb played a role in Saha's ascendancy to the state BJP unit and both of them ruled the state hand-in-glove.

Both of them showed a dictatorial attitude towards the people of the state and their aspirations. Saha never opposed Biplab's misgovernance and misrule.

All the elections to the local panchayats, municipal councils that were held in Tripura under Saha's and Biplab's leadership were never democratic or free and fair.

The Opposition was crushed using high-handed tactics; their candidates were beaten by BJP goons as well as the police.

The voters who supported the Opposition were threatened and not allowed to cast their votes. Using such violent means, Saha and Biplab won various local elections in Tripura.

Having seen such violence in the last four years, the common people are extremely angry with the BJP.

Removing Deb and replacing him with Saha is a fruitless exercise that the (BJP) national leadership has indulged in.

It is a foolish attempt to think that people will forget what these two have done to the state and its people in the last four years.

So, the people will not give BJP another chance in Tripura?

About 20 reserved seats in the hill areas and about 14-15 seats in the scheduled tribe-dominated voter constituencies and the scheduled tribe voters in almost 35 of the 60 seats in Tripura are against the BJP now.

In the plains too, the BJP will face the anger of voters.

Overall, the BJP in the state is in dire straits and headed for disaster.

While there is not much time left for the BJP to change the situation, I think they will advance the election in Tripura. Manik babu is not yet a member of the Tripura assembly and he should get himself elected as an MLA before November.

I think Tripura will go to the polls along with Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

Why did you quit BJP?

We (the rebel BJP MLAs in Tripura who had wanted Biplab Kumar Deb shunted out of the state) always tried to bring the concerns of the people, their anger against Biplab's misgovernance before the national BJP leadership, but they often turned a blind eye to what was happening on the ground here.

11 MLAs of the party went to meet (BJP President) J P Naddaji and apprise him about people's unhappiness with Biplab. From J P Naddaji to Amit Shahji we made all the efforts to help them understand the situation in Tripura, but they would just not listen to us.

For four long years we met the national leadership several times and tried to make them see the anger of people against Biplab, but they would have none of it. So, on February 7, 2022, I resigned.

The national leadership didn't want to listen to the indigenous people of Tripura. We were born and brought up here; we were married here; our children were raised here. Biplab Deb does not have the indigenous lineage in Tripura that we have.

Biplab (his parents) came from Bangladesh. Then he went to Delhi and after many, many, years he was shoved down our throats as the chief minister.

He doesn't have the welfare of the people of Tripura in his heart. Being an outsider, he has got nothing to do with it. But the national leadership decided to go with an outsider and neglect the people who are indigenous and know what the people want. We have heard the woes of the people and have been with them.

I had no choice but to quit BJP.

Today, just like when I was with the BJP, I am with the people of my state.

I have returned to the Congress, my parent party. I rejoined the Congress because I want to fight the BJP's ideology, its sectarian policies because these are not grounded in Tripura's culture.

The BJP lied to the people and came to power. But now the janata have seen through their lies and jumlas (empty promises) and will oust them in 2023.

Isn't it unfair to call Biplab Kumar Deb an outsider?

Nobody knew him when he came to Tripura. People knew about him only when he was foisted as the BJP president of Tripura. He does not have an indigenous identity. And within two years he was made the CM.

The people feel cheated. True to his character, he mishandled the state of affairs; ruled with an iron-hand; like a dictator.

Finally, after foisting him for four years, the central leadership realised their mistake and ousted him quickly for some last-minute damage control.

What made the central BJP leadership remove Biplab Kumar Deb now and not when 11 of the state BJP MLAs asked for it in 2019?

We have from the beginning opposed the decision of making Biplab the CM and told J P Naddaji and Amit Shahji that they were making a mistake.

Had they listened to what we were trying to say back then, they would not have cut a sorry figure now. We had warned them that the BJP would be in trouble in Tripura if they did not sack him.

We had made this point in September 2018 and again the 11 of us visited the central leadership again in September 2019 with the same demand.

We were assured by J P Naddaji that the prime minister (Narendra Damodardas Modi) and Amit Shahji will discuss the issue and take some urgent measures to address our concerns. But they sat on this festering wound for almost another three years.

The most they did was send some central observer who made a report and whitewashed the BJP MLAs' rebellion against Biplab. Majority of the MLAs and ministers in the state were against his appointment. He continued to remain the CM with the blessings of the prime minister and home minister.

If Amitbhai has asked Biplab to step down now, then I think they have realised their mistake. But it is quite late now. They let Biplab rule for four years on purpose.

What purpose?

They (the central BJP leadership) thought that Tripura is a small state and can be ignored. But when I and many other BJP MLAs left the party they realised how angry were the party MLAs with Biplab and they too could jump ship.

But it is too late in the day now. I know a lot of BJP MLAs are on their way out. They will be quitting the party in the run-up to the assembly election.

Quit BJP and...?

Many of those who left the Congress to join the BJP have expressed their wish to come back to the Congress. They will soon be back in the Congress.

What hope does the Congress have of winning the assembly election?

The CPI-M ruled Tripura for 25 years. Fed up of Communist rule they (the Tripura electorate) voted the BJP to power. What the CPI-M did in 25 years, the BJP did it in just four years.

The BJP showed people their true colours. This time the people from the hills and the plains too will give the Congress a chance.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is also in Tripura.

The TMC's entry here will only help the BJP, just like what happened in Goa. In 2023, it will be the Congress versus BJP in Tripura.

If the Congress starts working in right earnest and implements the agenda decided during the chintan shivir in Udaipur, then the Congress will emerge as a big factor in the state and in the entire north east.