Nothing changes the fact that the BJP won the civic polls with a massive mandate. The saffron party won all the civic bodies of the state, including the most prestigious Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC). A big credit of share for BJP’s massive victory goes to chief minister Biplab Deb himself. He was the main election campaigner of the saffron party for the civic body polls.

Since last year, the ruling BJP has been facing internal dissent. Particularly, the dissent has been against Biplab Deb himself. The leader of the dissenting camp is the Agartala assembly constituency’s BJP MLA Sudip Roy Barman, the former state Congress president and son of former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman. On the formation of the first ministry of the BJP-IPFT(NC) government, Sudip was given charge of the health ministry. However, owing to differences with Biplab, Sudip was removed from the state cabinet by the former.

Since then, the leader has turned into a rebel within the state saffron party and has been trying to make his voice heard by the party’s central leadership. Initially, the anti-Biplab BJP group had around 7-8 party MLAs. The group even went to Delhi to meet with the party central leadership last year. This led to the birth of many speculations in the state about a possible change of leadership both in the party and the government.

However, the rebel group led by Sudip wasn’t entertained by the top leadership of the BJP. The central leadership chose to repose its faith in Biplab Deb. This didn’t go well with the rebel camp of the party. And after Trinamool Congress’s massive victory for the third time under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal this year, the speculations grew that Sudip camp may go again to the Trinamool, which again has been trying to gain a foothold in the state after many failed attempts in the past.

It is a well-known secret that Sudip is a very ambitious leader. That’s why when he realised that Congress was a sinking ship, he shifted to the TMC in 2016, just after the party returned to power in West Bengal for the second time. Later again when he realised that TMC wasn’t gaining in comparison to the BJP as the main opposition party against CPI(M), he along with his aides joined the saffron party in 2017.

During the civic body polls campaign, the Sudip camp was completely ignored by the BJP. The rebel camp particularly has a hold on Agartala and the neighbouring areas — falling under the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The camp supported TMC by remaining behind the curtains. Many of the TMC candidates in AMC, as reported by the local media, were actually aides of the Sudip camp. That’s the reason that Biplab Deb and other major leaders of BJP indirectly attacked Sudip Barman during the campaign.

But BJP’s massive victory in all the 51 wards of AMC has washed away the dreams of Sudip camp — and this, no doubt, is a personal victory of Biplab Deb, who steered the party’s campaign in the AMC. In fact, this is the first time that AMC would have no opposition. True that TMC managed to emerge in AMC as the second party but the credit particularly goes to Sudip camp, which provided many candidates to the party. AMC results have dealt a big blow to the rebel camp, which already has been weakened with Sushanta Chowdhury, a very close aide of Sudip, and Ramprasad Paul distancing from the camp. Later both were made ministers in the Biplab government.

Nevertheless, there remain many key challenges for the Biplab Deb government of the state. Most of them are governance-related. BJP ended the 25 years of CPI(M) led Left Front rule mainly with the promise of giving jobs to the youth. Inspite of the government claims, the unemployment issue remains a burning one in the state and the performance of the government on this issue hasn’t been up to the mark.

Politically BJP has failed, as of now, to strongly establish its roots in the hills. To rule Tripura on its own strength, a party needs to have a strong base both in the plains and the hills. The voters of Tripura have particularly voted for the ruling party massively during the civic polls — as seen in the CPI(M) led Left Front era too. No doubt that the civic polls are a big relief for Biplab Deb and BJP but the party faces challenges both at political and governance levels. (IPA Service)