Agartala, Sept 25: Ruling BJP MLA and veteran tribal leader Burba Mohan Tripura on Friday resigned from the Assembly and was likely to join TIPRA (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance), a tribal-based party.

Official sources said that the 67-year-old legislator accompanied by TIPRA party supremo and former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman submitted his resignation letter to Tripura Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty.

The Speaker immediately accepted his resignation letter.

Deb Barman said Burba Mohan Tripura along with a senior BJP leader Gauri Sankar Reang, also a former Deputy Speaker of the Tripura Assembly, joined his party late on Friday evening.

Burba Mohan Tripura, who was unavailable for comments, was elected to the state Assembly in the 2018 election from the tribal reserved seat Karbook in southern Tripura’s Gomati district.

“The matter relating to Burba Mohan Tripura is being looked after by the senior party leaders,” BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said.

Burba Mohan Tripura is the fourth BJP MLA to quit the Assembly since last year.

Earlier Ashis Das, Sudip Roy Barman and Ashis Kumar Saha also quit the party and the Assembly membership after open differences with former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who resigned from the top post on May 14 following the instructions of the party’s Central leadership.

Das joined the Trinamool Congress last year and quit the party in May this year while Roy Barman, also a former BJP Minister, and Saha joined the Congress in February this year.

Roy Barman was re-elected to the state Assembly for the sixth time in the bypoll in June on a Congress ticket.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) MLA Brishaketu Debbarma also resigned from the Assembly in June last year and joined the TIPRA reducing the party’s (IPFT) strength to seven.

After Burba Mohan Tripura’s resignation, BJP’s strength has reduced to 35 in the 60-member Assembly.