Manik Saha takes oath; cabinet has 9 BJP and 2 IPFT faces

Tripura's new chief minister, Manik Saha, on Monday inducted 11 ministers - nine from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and two belonging to the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) - into his cabinet.

Nine of the ministers were also part of the cabinet of Biplab Kumar Deb, Saha's predecessor who resigned on Saturday.

The IPFT, which is caught in a leadership tussle, has dropped Mevar Kumar Jamatia, the minister for forest and tribal welfare during Deb's term, from its list.


The two new ministers are veteran tribal leader Rampada Jamatia of the BJP and IPFT's Prem Kumar Reang.

The others are Jishnu Dev Varma (deputy chief minister), Ratan Lal Nath, Pranajit Singha Roy, Manoj Kanti Deb, Santana Chakma, Ram Prasad Paul, Bhagaban Chandra Das, Sushanta Chowdhury (all BJP) and Narendra Chandra Debbarma (IPFT). Chakma is the only female minister.

They were administered the oath of office by governor Satyadeo Narain Arya during a half-an-hour-long ceremony.

Election to the 60-member Tripura assembly is due in January-February 2023.

Meanwhile, BJP's ally IPFT is staring at a split.

Senior leader Debbarma was formally elected president of the party. This led Jamatia, who was its president, to threaten that he would move court challenging the election of Debbarma and his committee.