BJP MLA Elected Tripura Speaker As Main Opposition Abstains From Voting

BJP MLA Biswabandhu Sen was today elected Speaker of the Tripura Assembly with 32 votes in the 60-member house as Tipra Motha Party, the main opposition, abstained from voting.

Mr Sen defeated Congress MLA Gopal Chandra Roy, who got only 14 votes of the total 27 opposition MLAs.

Under the leadership of Animesh Debbarma, all the Tipra Motha Party MLAs had walked out of the House on the pretext of protest against not providing proper sitting arrangements to its 13 MLAs.

The ruling BJP has 31 members and its ally, IPFT, has one MLA in the Assembly while opposition parties have 27 members comprising 13 of Tipra Motha, 11 of CPM, and three of Congress.

Two candidates had contested for Speaker of the Tripura Legislative Assembly, voting for which started at around 11 AM on Friday, the first day of the assembly session after the new government was elected earlier this month.

Opposition CPM, Congress and Tipra Motha had earlier announced a common candidate against the BJP nominee for the posts of speaker and deputy speaker in Tripura assembly. Sources say Tipra Motha's decision to abstain from voting came after Home Minister Amit Shah's call to Mr Debbarma.

The scion of the former Tripura royal family in a tweet earlier had said that Home Minister Amit Shah has assured the appointment of an interlocutor on March 27 to address the issues of the tribal population of the state.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, and BJP chief JP Nadda had on March 8 held talks with Tipra Motha leaders including Mr Debbarma over tribal welfare in the state.

Talks between the BJP and Tipra Motha in the run-up to the polls fell through when the tribal party stuck to its statehood demand and the BJP did not agree.