Veteran politician Ratan Chakraborty likely to be new Speaker of Tripura Assembly

AGARTALA: Veteran politician and three-time MLA Ratan Chakraborty is 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 organization ahead of the 2023 assembly polls.

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

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. (IANS)

Also Read: Tripura Assembly Speaker Rebati Mohan Das resigns from post

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