Tripura Votes on Feb 16: No CM Face Yet, What is BJP’s Strategy in State’s Game of Thrones?

Even though Tripura votes on February 16, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to announce its chief ministerial candidate, as part of its strategy. The saffron party had changed chief ministers in other poll-bound states, ahead of the crucial polls, and later announced them as CM faces.

Sources stated although the strategy of announcing Pushkar Singh Dhami and Bhupendra Patel as the CM faces worked in Uttarakhand and Gujarat, respectively, the BJP has deliberately decided to not name a CM face for Tripura.

UNION MINISTER TO CONTEST FROM STATE

The BJP leadership, too, has decided to keep its options open, sending Union Minister Pratima Bhowmik to contest the Assembly polls. Many believe sending Bhowmik was a message for the party’s state leadership. Also, by not announcing a face as the CM, the party is being calculative, as there seems to be a close contest on many seats, believe party sources.

Some in the party believe that Bhowmik is from the Nath sect and speaks Bengali and if the party retains power, she would be the Bengali face and BJP’s parallel against another Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.

The party is open to announcing a woman leader, who served as a Union Minister and still came to state politics.

The party had removed Biplab Deb from the chief ministerial post, giving the job to Manik Saha.

STIFF CHALLENGE

Party sources claim that the BJP will retain power, however, it comes with a rider. There are many seats where the party will face a stiff challenge in the north-eastern state, as the entire opposition seems to be fighting the BJP government.

“The Congress-Left alliance has already received tacit support of Pradyut Debbarma, scion of tribal king and chief of Tipra Motha, another party active especially in tribal seats. This changes the equation on a few seats. However, we still believe that ground-level workers of both the Congress and Left will not come together, as they have faced violence at each other’s hands over many years," added a senior party leader.

Securing Tripura is considered important for the BJP as the party had in 2018 dislodged the CPIM government in the state after 25 years.

With the Lok Sabha polls just a year away, the party feels that securing a win would go a long way in boosting the morale of the cadre. It also feels that by securing a win, the BJP would be able to establish itself as a party that is there to stay in the north-east and last time’s win wasn’t just a fluke, sources said.

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