Tripura: Manik Saha Govt sworn in, 8 including a woman MLA takes oath as cabinet ministers

Dental surgeon-turned-politician and BJP leader Manik Saha was sworn in as the chief Minister of Tripura for a second consecutive term today. The 70-year-old Saha picked a team of 8 MLAs including a woman face (Santana Chakma of BJP) to be part of his Cabinet.

Saha’s cabinet includes seven BJP MLAs and one IPFT legislator. The oath of office to the 9 legislators including CM Saha was administered by Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya at Swami Vivekananda Maidan in Agartala.

The other ministers who were sworn in today are:

Ratan Lal Nath, BJP
Sushanta Chowdhury, BJP
Santana Chakma, BJP
Tinku Roy, BJP
Pranajit Singha Roy, BJP
Sukla Charan Noatia, IPFT
Bikash Debbarma, BJP
Sudhangshu Das, BJP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam Chief Minister and NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP national President JP Nadda, Sikkim CM Prem Singh Tamang, Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu, Manipir CM N Biren Singh were present at the swearing-in ceremony of Manik Saha-led government in the state.

Needless to add that BJP has indeed made significant advancements in the Northeast by forming governments with the alliance in three Northeastern states–Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura.

The presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, HM Shah and JP Nadda Nadda at the swearing-in ceremony of the Manik Saha-led government who also attended the swearing-in ceremony of Conrad Sangma-led Meghalaya government and Neiphiu Rio-led Nagaland government yesterday (March 7) is the BJP’s clear message to the nation and the Congress in particular, that the northeast means a lot to BJP, the party cares for the people and the states of the region and the region will play a significant role in the 2024 general elections.

This is also a direct snub to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge who had said that there is nothing big about the results of Northeast states.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP had a sweeping victory in the recently concluded Assembly elections by winning 32 out of 60 seats alone crossing the majority mark of 31; while its alliance partner the IPFT could manage to win only 1 seat.
Manik Saha won from the Town Bordowali seat by defeating Asish Kumar Saha of the Congress by a margin of 1257 votes.
Manik Saha who is a dental surgeon-turned-politician was named as Chief Minister of Tripura replacing then-chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb who assumed the post in 2018.
From that point on until now, he has actually handled affairs quite well and has been a friendly face and accepted by the people leading the BJP to another impressive win this time.

By Lipika Roy