As part of the preparation for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP on Friday constituted a 16-member Tripura State Core Committee of the party.

 BJP national president JP Nadda has reconstituted the 16-member core committee of the party in Tripura by replacing three leaders. The three leaders who were dropped in the Core Committee including Papia Datta, Tinku Roy and Kishore Barman and they are replaced by party general secretaries Amit Rakshit, MLA Bhagaban Das and Bipin Debbarma.

The core committee headed by BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee also has Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, former CM Biplab Kumar Deb, former deputy CM Jishnu Dev Varma and Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik , MP Rebati Tripura, two senior cabinet ministers of state Ratan Lal Nath and Pranajit Singha Roy and party Manoj Kanti Debroy.

GR Ravindra Raju, state general secretary (organization), also found a place in the newly constituted committee. Mahesh Sharma, state Prabhari (in-charge), Sambit Patra, national spokesperson and NE coordinator, and Rituraj Sinha, national secretary are also part of the panel as special invitees.

The reconstitution of the core committee is a routine exercise as general secretaries are always given berths in the core committee. That's the reason why Amit Rakshit, Bhagaban Das and Bipin Debbarma were included in the core team, said party's media in-charge Sunit Sarkar.

While Papia Datta was recently made a vice-president in the party, Tinku Roy became a minister and Kishore Barman had expressed his desire to quit the post after becoming an MLA.