Biplab Kumar Deb elected leader of BJP legislature party, set to be next Tripura CM

Tripura BJP president and newly-elected MLA Biplab Kumar Deb was on Tuesday unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party in the state, Union minister Nitin Gadkari announced.

Deb, whose name was proposed by party MLA Sudip Roy Burman in the meeting, will be the new chief minister of Tripura, Gadkari said.

BJP’s poll ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, has demanded that the chief minister be from the tribal community.

Gadkari, deputed as observer by BJP president Amit Shah, said BJP MLA Jishnu Debbarma will be the deputy chief minister. Deb will stake claim to form government in the state before  Governor Tathagata Roy. No MLA of the IPFT was present in the meeting.

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The IPFT had on Monday threatened not to join the government if the party was not given “respectable positions” in the ministry. It would support the government from outside if its conditions were not met, it said.

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

Elections were held for 59 seats of the 60-member assembly on February 18. Polling was countermanded in one seat due to death of a CPI(M) candidate.