Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new BJP-IPFT government in Tripura on March 8, which is also International Women's Day, amid speculation that the BJP could appoint Union minister Pratima Bhoumik as the northeast's first woman CM.
Bhoumik is the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment and a Lok Sabha MP from the Tripura West constituency. The party had fielded her from Tripura's Dhanpur assembly constituency, which had sent former Tripura CM and CPI(M) leader Manik Sarkar to the legislative assembly five times from 1998 to 2018. Dhanpur is an assembly segment in the Tripura West Lok Sabha constituency. Bhoumik won the election by 3,500 votes.
Sources, however, put in a caveat, saying that the party had contested the elections under Manik Saha's leadership after sacking Biplab Deb in May 2022, and the decision to replace him will be taken with due consideration and with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Currently, the BJP holds both the Lok Sabha seats in Tripura. A factor in favour of appointing Bhoumik is the support the BJP and the PM received from women in the state. While 70-year-old Saha, a dentist, has a clean image, Bhoumik, 53, is much younger and hails from a family of agriculturists. Saha quit the Congress in 2016 to join the BJP. Bhoumik has been associated with the BJP since the 1990s.
In the recently concluded Tripura Assembly elections, the BJP won 32 seats in the 60-member assembly, while its ally IPFT won one seat. Saha is currently the caretaker chief minister, having tendered his government's resignation to Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya on Friday. The new government's oath-taking ceremony will be held at Vivekananda ground in Agartala.
"Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the chairman of NEDA, is likely to arrive today. Besides, senior party leaders and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will also be invited to witness the swearing-in ceremony of the new government, BJP state vice president Rebati Tripura, a Lok Sabha MP, said on Saturday.