Agartala, Feb 9 : A BJP MLA who quit the party and the Tripura Assembly and joined the Congress declared on Wednesday that it was not his intention to topple the BJP-IPFT government immediately but vowed to bring the Congress back to power in the state next year. “Although a sizable number of legislators of the ruling alliance are all set to desert due to frustration, we are not in favour of (toppling) the government before its tenure is over. Our resolution is to form a Congress government in 2023,” Sudip Roybarman asserted.
Five-term MLA and former Minister Roybarman along with another senior BJP legislator, Ashis Kumar Saha, resigned from the Assembly as well as the BJP on Monday. A day later, both the leaders joined the Congress. The Congress Bhavan here, which had been virtually deserted for three years, now has a new look.
The dissidents’ supporters celebrated their return by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets. Meanwhile, BJP leaders accused Roybarman and Saha of resigning as MLA to give oxygen to the CPI-M. BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee reiterated that their move will help the Communists to reduce the government into a minority. Roybarman denied the charge, saying he and his colleague had been fighting against the CPI-M for four decades.
“We joined the BJP before the last assembly elections due to which the BJP won and Biplab Deb becomes the Chief Minister. The party didn’t do anything for the people and none of the election promises were fulfilled,” he said. “The BJP wants to pre-pone the election so that they wouldn’t have to give jobs to the unemployed or implement any election promise,” he added.
