• Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura 

Agartala, September 24, 2022 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest in all 60 assembly constituencies along with its allied partner IPFT in the upcoming assembly election slated to be held in Tripura early next year and achieve victory in majority number of seats to retain in power, said party’s state chief spokesperson Subrata Chakraborty on Saturday.

BJP national general secretary (organization) BL Santosh visited Tripura on Friday last and chaired a series of meetings till Saturday afternoon with the office bearers, members of core committee, MLAs, ministers, MPs and union minister of state to finalize strategies and prepare blueprint for fielding candidates in all 60 assembly constituencies, he added.

In the meetings, BJP national general secretary (organization) Santosh was accompanied by Tripura ‘Prabhari’ and MP Dr Mahesh Sharma, Northeast Coordinator Dr Sambit Patra, organizational secretary of Assam and Tripura Phanindranath Sharma, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, union minister of state Pratima Bhoumik, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, Rajya Sabha MP Biplab Kumar Deb, Lok Sabha MP Rebati Tripura, council of ministers, party’s state president Rajib Bhattacharjee, general secretaries, secretaries and other office bearers the Pradesh committee.

Addressing a press conference at a resort located in the suburbs of the Agartala city on Saturday afternoon, Chakraborty said that the series of meetings chaired by BJP national general secretary (organization) BL Santosh significantly focused on finalizing strategies and chalk out a roadmap targeting the assembly election in 2023.

“Each and every member present in the ‘Chintan Baithok’ started from the Saturday morning till the afternoon, discussed elaborately about various issues prior to the assembly election in Tripura. BJP will contest in all the 60 assembly constituencies with its allied partner in the ensuing assembly polls as we never leave hands of our partner and if they desire to leave, it’s a separate thing. However, the division of seats will be decided later based on further discussion”, he added.

Citing the grounds of party’s role in Tripura, he said “Discussion on how far has the government achieved the expectations with which people have brought it and what is needed to be done in the days left for next assembly election. The national leader of the BJP gave directions on the ways to strengthen the party’s base in the state.”

In the ‘Chintan Baithok’, BJP’s national general secretary (organization) also heard about the role of opposition parties and what they are upto. The opposition may adopt various kinds of strategies to misguide the people, but the saffron party knows the mindset of common people. BJP is having a good hold at the booth level and Santosh asked to strengthen the booths further as these are the main pillars of the party, Chakraborty told reporters.

Being asked about tendering resignation by the BJP MLAs, Chakraborty said “Leaving of MLAs will incur no loss to the party or its organization. Those MLAs who failed to work and create any good image in their respective constituencies are leaving. People are with us and there’s no doubt in that. We will retain power.”

In reply to a query on alliance and party’s base in the hills of Tripura, he said “Till now, we are not thinking of any new partner as our organization is stronger in hills also. If they (alliance partner IPFT) have weakened then they will need to rectify.”