Congress MLA Ratan Lal Nath joins BJP in Tripura

Congress MLA Ratan Lal Nath, along with a small section of the ruling CPI-M, today joined the BJP here ahead of the Assembly elections due next year.
Apart from Nath, the president of Tripura unit of Pradesh Mohila Congress and councillor of Agartala Municipal Council (AMC), Himani Debbarma, also joined the BJP today.
Ram Madhav, General Secretary of the BJP, today inducted Nath into the party by handing over the saffron flag. The other new recruits were received by State BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb.
With the induction of Nath, the total number of MLAs of the saffron party in Tripuras 60-member House rose to seven.

Earlier, six MLAs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) who had won with Congress tickets, joined the saffron party in August this year.
State media in-charge Victor Shome said, altogether, 1,000 people from 350 families from West Tripura district today joined the BJP.

Nath claimed that he switched allegiance to the BJP to crush "corruptions of CPI-M" and see a BJP government in the state in the Assembly elections to be held early next year.
The Tripura government, headed by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, has become the applied centre of corruption, and Sarkar is the main abettor," Nath said in his speech.

Tripura would be the 20th state in the country to be ruled by the BJP because majority of people in the state were dreaming of a BJP government," Ram Madhav said.
He also said that if the BJP came to power in Tripura, good governance would be the axis and the motto would be to eliminate poverty, backwardness and unemployment.
Our battle cry is to form a Marxists-free government because they are violent. At least five BJP workers were murdered in recent time, he added.
The Chairman of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said, nobody can stop BJP from forming the government in Tripura.

People have become euphoric of forming BJP government. I am sensing that our party would sweep in the state and it would be even difficult for CPI-M to win in 10 seats in the 60-member House, Sharma said in his speech.
BJP state President Biplab Kumar Deb and BJP MLA, Sudip Roy Burman also spoke on the occasion.