The BJP’s central leadership has asked the Tripura state unit to further strengthen the party organisation and ensure that government welfare and development schemes reach people across all sections of society, a state party leader said on Friday.
A senior BJP leader in Tripura said that BJP National President Nitin Nabin and the party’s National General Secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh held separate meetings with the state leaders in New Delhi on Thursday night.
“The central leaders have asked the state leaders to further gear up the party and strengthen the organisation ahead of the crucial elections to the Village Committees and urban local bodies,” the leader said.
He said that the central leaders also took feedback from the state leaders regarding the functioning of the party organisation and its position ahead of the upcoming elections to the Village Committees and urban local bodies.
The leader said that the New Delhi meetings assume significance in view of the upcoming important elections and the BJP’s strategy regarding electoral alliances with its two tribal party allies -- the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT).
Elections to 587 Village Committees, equivalent to Gram Panchayats, under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), along with more than 20 urban local bodies, are scheduled to be held within this year.
In the TTAADC elections held on April 12, the Tipra Motha Party (TMP) secured a sweeping victory by winning 24 of the 28 elected seats. The BJP managed to win only four seats.
The BJP and its two tribal-based allies -- the TMP and the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) -- had contested the polls separately after failing to reach an electoral understanding. Since 2021, the TMP has governed the strategically significant council, which is widely regarded as the second most important constitutional and political institution in Tripura after the state Assembly.
The 30-member TTAADC consists of 28 elected representatives and two members nominated by the state government, and it administers nearly 70 per cent of Tripura’s 10,491 sq km geographical area.
Besides Nitin Nabin and B.L. Santhosh, other central leaders who attended the two meetings included BJP’s Northeast coordinator Sambit Patra and the party’s observer for Tripura, Rajdeep Roy, a sitting MLA from Silchar and a former Lok Sabha member from southern Assam.
In all, 14 BJP leaders from Tripura, all the members of the party’s core committee, attended the meetings held at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
The state leaders who attended the New Delhi meetings included Chief Minister Manik Saha, state President Abhishek Debroy, senior Ministers Ratan Lal Nath, Tinku Roy and Bikash Debbarma, state Assembly Speaker Ram Pada Jamatia, former Chief Minister and sitting MP Biplab Kumar Deb, Rajya Sabha member Rajib Bhattacharjee and former Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik.