Manik Saha submits his resignation to Governor, to continue as Tripura CM till new govt is formed

Agartala (Tripura) [India], March 3 (ANI): A day after the BJP created history by returning to power in Tripura, Chief Minister Manik Saha on Friday submitted his resignation to Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya at Raj Bhavan in Agartala and the Governor asked him to continue till the new government is sworn in.

“Today I have submitted my resignation to the Governor and the Governor has asked me to continue as CM till the new government is formed. Swearing-in ceremony most likely to be held on March 8,” said Saha to reporters.

“Today met Hon’ble Governor of Tripura Shri Satyadeo Narain Arya Ji at Raj Bhavan and submitted my resignation as Chief Minister. He accepted the resignation and asked me to continue as caretaker CM till formation of the new government,” Saha said in a tweet.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in the state by winning an absolute majority.

According to the Election Commission of India, BJP won 32 seats with a vote share of around 39 per cent. Tipra Motha Party came second by winning 13 seats. Communist Party of India (Marxist) got 11 seats while Congress bagged three seats. The Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) managed to open its account by winning one seat.

The CPI(M) and the Congress, arch rivals in Kerala, came together in the Northeast this time in a bid to oust the BJP from power. The combined vote share of CPI(M) and Congress remained around 33 per cent.

Chief Minister Saha defeated Congress’ Asish Kumar Saha from the Town Bordowali seat by a margin of 1,257 votes. In the 60-member Tripura assembly, the majority mark is 31.

The BJP, which had never won a single seat in Tripura before 2018, stormed to power in the last election in alliance with IPFT and had ousted the Left Front which had been in power in the border state for 35 years since 1978.

The BJP contested on 55 seats and its ally, IPFT, on six seats. But both allies had fielded candidates in the Ampinagar constituency in the Gomati district.

The Left contested on 47 and Congress on 13 seats, respectively. Of the total 47 seats, the CPM contested 43 seats while the Forward Bloc, Communist Party of India (CPI) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) contested one seat each.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front ruled the state for nearly four decades, with a gap between 1988 and 1993, when the Congress was in power but now both parties joined hands with the intention to oust BJP from power.