Dilip Das to be new Tripura Speaker

Renowned physician Dilip Das will be the Speaker of the new Tripura assembly and senior lawyer Arun Chandra Bhowmik will be his deputy, an official said here on Friday.

Das and Bhowmik as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominees were elected to the state assembly for the first time from Barjala (in western Tripura) and Belonia (in southern Tripura) assembly constituencies, respectively.

A senior official of the state Parliamentary Affairs Department said Governor Tathagata Roy would constitute the 12th Tripura assembly before the new members took oath.

Das and Bhowmik will replace CPI-M's Ramendra Chandra Debnath and Pabitra Kar, respectively.

In the outgoing House, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front had 51 members while the BJP had six (who resigned from the Congress in 2016 and joined the BJP last year via Trinamool Congress) and the Congress, once main opposition party in Tripura, had just two.

One seat of the outgoing house was vacant after then Congress legislator Ratan Lal Nath was expelled under the anti-defection law.

Nath joined the BJP and in the February 18 polls was re-elected to the House from Mohanpur assembly constituency and on Friday became a minister.

In the assembly polls, the BJP secured 35 seats in the 60-member Assembly and the IPFT, a tribal-based party, bagged eight.

The CPI-M got 16 seats while the Left Front partners -- Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party -- besides the Congress drew a blank.

In the Charilam assembly constituency (reserved for tribals) election could not be held on February 18 after the death of the CPI-M candidate and would now be held on Monday.

--IANS

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