Tripura: Another MLA of BJP ally IPFT resigns, may join Tipra Motha

IPFT MLA Mevar Kumar Jamatia on Tuesday said he has resigned as a member of the Tripura assembly.

Jamatia is the third MLA of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the BJP, to resign ahead of next year's assembly elections in the Northeastern state.

In June last year, Brishaketu Debbarma had submitted his resignation as the MLA of Simna constituency, while Raima Valley MLA Dhananjoy Tripura quit last month. Both of them have joined the Tipra Motha.

With Jamatia's resignation, the IPFT's tally in the assembly went down to five.

"Today, I met speaker Ratan Chakraborty and submitted my resignation," Jamatia, who represents Asharambari constituency in Khowai district, told reporters.

"For the past four years, I was the minister for Tribal Welfare, Forest and Fisheries but could not meet the aspirations of the people, and it that prompted me to take the decision," he added.

Jamatia said the Centre had constituted a high-level committee for socio-economic-linguistic development of the indigenous people after the 2018 assembly elections. "We had meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and tried to get the recommendations of the committee, but nothing yielded in the last four-and-a-half years," he claimed.

Sources said he will join Tipra Motha on November 12 at a mega rally to be held at the Vivekananda Ground in Agartala.

Jamatia, the former general secretary of the IPFT, was "sidelined" for his tiff with party chief NC Debbarma, who is at present the state's minister for revenue and forest.

He was also dropped from the state cabinet in March, and another IPFT MLA, Prem Kumar Reang, was made a minister.

Earlier, two BJP MLAs -- Sudip Roy Barman and Asish Saha -- resigned to join the Congress, while another BJP MLA, Burbo Mohan Tripura, quit and switched over to Tipra Motha.

Asish Kumar Das, the BJP MLA of Surma constituency in Dhalai district, was also disqualified for "gross misconduct".

Despite the resignation of Jamatia, the BJP has an absolute majority in the 60-member assembly with 34 legislators.

The opposition CPI(M) has 15 MLAs and the Congress has one MLA.