Jishnu Dev Varma to be Deputy CM, will contest by-election from Dhanpur

Former Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma is likely to again join the state cabinet as deputy chief minister and will contest from Dhanpur assembly constituency which fell vacant after the Union Minister of state Pratima Bhowmik submitted her resignation.

Sources close to ruling BJP said that the central leaders of BJP have already approved the plan and soon the order will be  executed. Earlier, Jishnu Dev Varma was initially reluctant after he was defeated from Charilam assembly constituency, but the central leaders urged him to take the charge of deputy chief minister for the greater interest of the state's people.

Dev Varma was elected as MLA from Charilam assembly seat in 2018 assembly elections and successfully discharged the duties as Deputy Chief Minister of Tripura from 2018 to 2023, but he was defeated in the 2023 assembly elections by his rival Tipra-Motha candidate from the same constituency.

Source said that top central leaders also said that the party and the government need his services and the present state government is also behaving with him with full honour and till today the administration did not close the office of the deputy Chief minister. Normally, the administration closes the office of a minister who is no longer in the cabinet on the day the new cabinet takes oath. But in the case of Jishnu Dev Varma it is different as his office in secretariat and in house are still functioning and the staff of the office are attending on a regular basis though they don’t have any work. The escort and other facilities also remain the same from him like his previous stint.