Biplab Deb to be sworn-in as Tripura CM on Friday, PM Modi to attend

BJP President Amit Shah and senior party leaders arrived here on Thursday ahead of formation of a BJP-led government in Tripura on Friday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, informed party sources said here.

Apart from Modi, a host of Central ministers and leaders and Chief Ministers of several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled states would attend the swearing-in-ceremony of Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and his Council of Ministers.

BJP's Tripura Pradesh Vice President Subal Bhowmik told IANS that Amit Shah, BJP's National General Secretary Ram Madhav, General Secretary (Organisation) Ajay Jamwal and Assam minister and Tripura election-in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma, among other leaders, "held a series of meetings with the state leaders to select the ministers, assembly Speaker, Deputy Speaker and other important functionaries".

He said that Sarma, who is the convenor of the BJP-led anti-Congress alliance, North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), on Wednesday held a meeting here with the saffron party's electoral ally IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) and returned to Guwahati.

IPFT President Narendra Chandra Debbarma said the party has demanded four ministerial berths from the BJP and "we have discussed with Sarma and other leaders accordingly".

"We are yet to confirm how many ministerial berths would be offered to us. Discussions are still on," Debbarma told IANS.

Chief Minister-designate Deb announced on Tuesday that the party's tribal leader Jishnu Debbarma will be Deputy Chief Minister.

Tripura's royal family scion Jishnu Debbarma is the BJP nominee for Charilam assembly constituency (reserved for tribals), where election was countermanded following the death of the Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate and it would be held on Monday.

The BJP and the IPFT swept the February 18 polls, winning 43 of the 59 seats.

The BJP secured 35 seats in the 60-member Assembly and the IPFT, a tribal-based party, eight. The CPI-M got 16 seats while the Left Front partners -- Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party -- besides once main opposition Congress drew blank.

A non-Left government would assume office on Friday for the first time in a quarter of a century.

BJP's Bhowmik also said that in the Deb-led government there would be representation of woman, youth, leaders of tribals and Scheduled Castes and other backward communities.

Meanwhile, all the outgoing ministers, including Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, are leaving their official residences and checking into MLA hostel, party offices and rented houses.

West Tripura District Magistrate Milind Ramteke and West District Police chief Abhijit Saptarshi are supervising the administrative and security arrangements for the swearing-in-ceremony of the new BJP government at the Assam Rifles ground.

"People would attend the swearing-in-ceremony from all across the state. In view of the possible arrival of the Prime Minister and other VVIPs in Friday's swearing-in-ceremony, elaborate security arrangements are being put in place," Saptarshi told the media.