Agartala, Aug 31: Three new faces – Ram Prasad Paul, Sushanta Chowdhury, and Bhagaban Chandra Das, were on Tuesday inducted in the first ever Tripura Cabinet expansion.
Extend heartiest wishes to my colleagues- Sh. Ramprasad Paul, Sh. Sushanta Chowdhury & Sh. Bhagaban Das who took oath today as a Minister of the State Government of Tripura.
Together, we shall continue to strive for fulfilling aspirations of the 37 lakh people of #Tripura. pic.twitter.com/fAfnkBfVc6
— Biplab Kumar Deb (@BjpBiplab) August 31, 2021
The three berths were lying vacant since BJP-IPFT alliance government assumed office in March 2018 after defeating the Left parties.
Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya administered the oath of office and secrecy to Paul, Chowdhury and Das as cabinet ministers at a function in the Raj Bhavan, where Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, his Council of Ministers and other dignitaries including Union Minister from Tripura Pratima Bhowmik and four central BJP leaders were present.
Former Tripura BJP-Vice President Paul, 55 and 42-years-old young legislator Chowdhury were elected to the state Assembly in the 2018 Assembly polls for the first time from western Tripura and Das is the saffron party’s northern Tripura leader also elected to the Assembly for the first time.
Meanwhile, a BJP leader, refusing to be named, said that eyeing at the 2023 Assembly elections in Tripura, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is further activating the governance and the party organisations all across the state.
Dissident MLAs skip swearing-in ceremony
Amidst open resentment by a section of ruling BJP MLAs and leaders in Tripura, the Cabinet expansion took place on Tuesday afternoon even as the dissident MLAs and BJP leaders boycotted the swearing-in ceremony.
The leaders of opposition Left parties and Congress also did not attend the oath taking ceremony.
Ministerial Berths lying vacant since 2018
Since the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) government assumed office on March 9, 2018, three ministerial berths were lying vacant and in May 2019 former Health and Information Technology Minister Sudip Roy Barman was sacked following differences with the Chief Minister and the vacancy in the ministry rose to four.
Amidst the dissidence by a section of ruling BJP MLAs and leaders since 2019, four senior central party leaders arrived in the state on Monday for a week-long visit to quell the internal disputes and also to plug the shortcomings, both in the government and the organisation.
