Burman to head Congress in Tripura assembly

Sudip Roy Burman has been appointed Tripura's Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, a party spokesperson said Sunday.

"AICC (All India Congress Committee) has appointed Burman as CLP leader. He will replace Ratan Lal Nath as leader of opposition in the state assembly," Ashok Sinha, spokesperson of the Congress in Tripura, told IANS.

Burman resigned as president of the Congress party's Tripura unit after it suffered a humiliating defeat in the Feb 14 assembly elections, result of which was declared Feb 28.

Burman, 47, a mechanical engineer by training and son of former Tripura chief minister Samir Ranjan Burman, has been elected to the state assembly four times from the Agartala constituency since 1998.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi last month appointed tribal leader Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl to head the party in the state, while Ashish Saha was chosen as the party's working president. Both Hrangkhawl and Saha are legislators.

The Congress managed only 10 seats in the 60-member house in the February polls. The Congress's poll partners Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and National Conference of Tripura drew blank after contesting 10 seats and one seat, respectively.

The Left Front comprising Communist Party of India-Marxists (49) and Communist Party of India (one) registered a resounding victory in the polls by winning 50 seats.