Biplab Deb to be sworn-in as Tripura CM on Mar 9

Tripura Bharatiya Janata Party president Biplab Deb will be sworn-in as the chief minister of the state on March 9 and party colleague Jishnu Kumar Debbarma as his deputy.

Deb met Governor Tathagata Roy and staked claim to form the government.

The swearing-in of the new ministers would take place on March 9 in the Assam Rifles Maidan, he said.

Earlier in the day, 48-year-old Deb was unanimously elected the leader of BJP legislature party, Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who was present in the meeting as the central observer, said.

Gadkari also told newsmen that Debbarma, a prominent tribal leader and a member of Tripura's royal family, would be the deputy chief minister.

Debbarma is yet to be elected as an MLA as the polling in his Charilam ST constituency was postponed due to the death of the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate. The election would now be held on March 12.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram also joined the meeting attended by 35 newly-elected BJP MLAs.

Deb said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and chief ministers of all the BJP-ruled states would be invited to the swearing-in ceremony.

Gadkari congratulated Deb for the landslide victory against the CPI-M-led Left Front and said he hoped Tripura would move on the path of progress under his leadership.

"We hope poverty and starvation of the people and the unemployment problem would come to an end in the new regime," he said.

Later, a combined meeting of BJP and its ally the Indigenous People's front of Tripura was held in which the IPFT endorsed the decision of the BJP legislature party.

The IPFT had earlier demanded that the chief minister should be from the tribal community.

IPFT president N C Debbarma said North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) chairman Himanta Biswa Sarma would come here tomorrow and in his presence it would be decided how many berths would be given to the IPFT in the ministry.

The IPFT has demanded 'respectable representation' in the new ministry.

The BJP-IPFT combine swept to power in the state last week, winning 43 seats in the 60-member Assembly. The BJP bagged 35 seats and the IPFT eight.

Elections were held for 59 seats on February 18. Polling was countermanded in one seat due to the death of the CPI-M candidate there.

IMAGE: Union minister Nitin Gadkari addresses the media in a party meeting, along with Tripura BJP president and chief minister-designate Biplab Deb, in Agartala on Tuesday. Phtograph: PTI Photo