Tripura BJP leader Dilip Sarkar passes away

Senior Tripura BJP leader and five-time MLA Dilip Sarkar died on Monday at a private hospital in Delhi after prolonged illness, family sources said here.

Sarkar, 61, a former state PWD Minister in the Congress-Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) alliance government between 1988 and 1993, died after suffereing from acute liver disease.

Sarkar, the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Badharghat, was a bachelor.

Sarkar, elected to the state assembly five times since 1988, joined the ruling BJP along with other Congress leaders in 2017.

His family members and sources in the BJP said that his body would be brought to Agartala from New Delhi on Tuesday.

BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharjee said the party flag would fly at half-mast across Tripura and all organisational programmes, except pre-scheduled election campaigns, stand suspended on Monday.

Chief Minister and Tripura BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb, former Chief Minister and senior CPI-M leader Manik Sarkar and Tripura Pradesh Congress Committe President Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarman have mourned Sarkar's demise.

Leaders cutting across party lines rushed to Sarkar's home at Badharghat after the news of his death reached here.

--IANS

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