By Aishwarya Chaurasia
The Lefts 25 years long reign in Tripura came to a resounding end as BJP defeated the Manik Sarkar, bringing about a biplab, Bengali word for revolution. Biplab Kumar Deb, the 48-year-old Tripura BJP president, was sworn in as Chief Minister of the North Eastern state in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president Amit Shah and other party leaders. A day after the results were announced, the young Chief Minister sought the blessing of Ex-Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and paid his tribute to the late minister Khagendra Jamatia. Addressing himself as peoples person, the new chief minister spoke to 3.7 million people of Tripura, calling them his dal, roti (staple). “Treat me as your son, brother, not as the CM. Pull my ears to put me on the right track if I err in providing you good governance,” said he, after taking charge of the state.
Who is Biplab Deb?
Born in 1969, in Rajdhar Nagar village in Gomati district of Tripura to a middle-class family, Biplab graduated from Tripuras Udaipur College before shifting to New Delhi for Higher education. In Delhi, he joined Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), where he volunteered for 16 years, training under prominent leaders Gobinda Acharya and Krishnagopal Sharma. In January 2016, Biplab was called back home to head the BJP in Tripura, replacing Sudhindra Dasgupta, a veteran who was party president for five years. Everyone appreciated Mr Deb’s effort to build the party from scratch and lead it to victory, and he was thus chosen as the candidate to lead the state.
Biplab Deb, the youngest Chief Minister of India after Devendra Fadnavis, contested election from Banamalipur Constituency in Agartala, which was held by Indian National Congress MLA Gopal Roy. Mr Deb won the Banamalipur Seat by an impressive margin of 9700 votes defeating Left Front’s Amol Chokroborty after leading a door to door campaign in his constituency with senior leader Sunil Deodhar. Mr Deb defeated Left Front after 25 years by winning 43 seats with his ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura out of possible 59 seats in Tripura.
The promises
Mr Deb assured people of Tripura development, something that was missing in the previous Governments regime. He said, “I love the people of Tripura. I even love the Communist and Manik Sarkar, but I am annoyed that they got so much time but didn’t utilise the resources of the state to develop it. We will rebuild it from scratch.” He championed the cause of youth employment opportunity, which he promised to improve if elected. Tripura has been struggling with non-implementation of 7th pay commission since a long time. In a state that still paid salary to the government workers on the basis of 4th pay commission, the promise to implement 7th pay commission to all the employees went a long way to secure BJP a win.
The wave of saffronisation that has hit Tripura promises to end the stagnation in employment and bring positive changes. With Biplab Deb as the young face of the new Government, the people of Tripura expect BJP to deliver on their promises. Whether Mr Biplab Deb would prove to be true to his name and bring about a revolution or fail as the previous government did, remains to be seen.
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