Amid the infighting in BJP in Tripura, four central leaders of the saffron party arrived at the state on Monday for a week-long visit.
Tripura BJP chief spokesman Subrata Chakraborty said the central leaders, led by the party’s Northeast Zonal Secretary, Organisation, Ajay Jamwal, would meet chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, state president Manik Saha besides the party MLAs.
They will also take views of state and district leaders about the governance and functioning of the party organisation.
The other party leaders in the team are national general secretary Dilip Saikia, general secretary in charge of Tripura Phanindranath Sharma, and state’s central observer Vinod Sonkar.
“The central party leaders would also visit a few districts and subdivisions to meet the grassroot leaders and workers,” Chakraborty said.
The central team arrived a day after five rebel MLAs of the party, and former district and state leaders held a meeting in Agartala on Sunday.
The five MLAs are Sudip Roy Barman, Ashis Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Ashis Das, and Burba Mohan Tripura.
Barman, a former health minister, said they obtained views and suggestions of the district and local leaders of all the eight districts and these would be communicated to the visiting central leaders.
“Leaders of the government and party organisations are not keen to listen to the opinion, grievances and suggestions of the district and grassroot leaders. That’s why the conference was held. This is not against the BJP or to join the Trinamool Congress,” the Congress-turned BJP leader said.
Since the BJP-IPFT (Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura) government assumed office on March 9, 2018, three ministerial berths were lying vacant and in May 2019, Barman was sacked, following differences of opinion with the Chief Minister.
The BJP in the state, along with central leaders, has initiated a series of meetings since June to resolve the differences.
Strong speculations about fresh political developments in Tripura gained currency after BJP national Vice President Mukul Roy, along with his son Subhrangshu Roy, rejoined West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool on June 11 in Kolkata.
Roy, before joining the BJP around four years ago, had often visited Tripura to supervise the Trinamool’s organisational matters.
Under Roy’s influence, six Congress MLAs led by Roy Barman and a large number of party leaders and workers joined the Trinamool in 2016 and a year later, joined the BJP, boosting the political strength of the saffron party.
At least 11 BJP legislators and some party leaders led by Roy Barman and fellow MLAs and former party Vice-President Ram Prasad Paul went to Delhi in October last year to discuss “party affairs in Tripura with the central leadership”.