NEW DELHI:
Two sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs – Sudip Roy Barman and Ashish Saha – who had resigned from the party yesterday, rejoined the Congress in New Delhi, on February 8.
Talking to The Meghalayan after re-joining Congress here at 24 Akbar Road, Saha said that the downfall of BJP in Tripura is certain.
“Earlier, we left Congress because the party has an understanding with the Communist Party of India -Marxist (CPI-M) in New Delhi. However, after a year of our stay with the BJP in the state, we understood that the activities of the party and Left Front are the same,” said Saha.
Following the resignation of Barman and Saha, BJP’s strength in the 60-member assembly has come down from 36 to 33. Previously, the BJP legislator Ashish Das too had resigned from the party after levelling allegations on the state party leadership and joined All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in October 2021.
“I was a hardcore Congress worker. I was following Congress ideology. I was two-time MLA of the Congress. I was a Congress mayor as well. I spent a long time in Congress. When we were frustrated with the Left front government, Congress was the only party to dethrone the Left. But when we found that Congress and Left were together in Delhi, we thought it was not possible to dethrone Left. So, we joined the BJP,” said Saha.
When asked the reason for leaving BJP, Saha said that the present State leadership has become arrogant. “We registered our complaint with the central leadership but nobody listened to us,” said Saha.
He said that in the 2023 election Congress will form the government in Tripura. “Before 2018 assembly election, BJP had merely 1.5 per cent of the total vote share but after we joined the party it formed the government,” claimed Saha.
He said that in the coming days, many more BJP leaders will leave the party and join Congress.
Barman who was the Health Minister after BJP formed the government in Tripura said, “In democracy, people’s mandate is the final authority. Today, the agenda of people is to uproot this government,” said Barman.
With a year left for the next assembly election in Tripura, leaving of both Saha and Barman from BJP is likely to cost the party dearly given the fact that the duo played a key role in the last assembly election.