‘Politics of development and transparent governance will help BJP retain victory even in 2024 in Tripura’

New Delhi: After retaining power for the second time in the northeast state of Tripura, BJP leadership sees the second term as more challenging to deliver promises, as well as is confident of winning both the Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming general elections. While speaking to the Millennium Post exclusively, the newly appointed deputy speaker of the Tripura Assembly Ram Prasad Paul said that during the second regime policy on employment, will be the prime focus of the ruling regime in the state.

A long-time member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayam Sangh (RSS), it was only in 2018, Paul, 55, became a legislator for the first time, winning from the Suryamaninagar assembly constituency. The party veteran claimed that the people of Tripura started believing in BJP’s governance at the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, however, they were scared of both the Congress and Left parties for the vindictive politics and never plucked up the courage to come out and vote for the saffron party. It is because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and his visionary politics, that the people decided to uproot the decades-long Left regime and give Bharatiya Janata Party a chance to serve the state, Paul added.

“Both the Left and Congress party always intended to target the weaker and underdeveloped sections of the society, exploiting their vulnerability. Therefore, they blessed BJP with a special opportunity in 2018 to serve them, as we never do compromise with corruption and do not believe in political violence,” he mentioned.

But at the same time, the BJP veteran agreed upon the fact that many people across the different political parties join BJP or allied with the party during the first regime to serve their “individual” purposes. “When they felt that transparent governance is the prime focus of the BJP-ruled government in the state, they gradually parted. 80 Per cent of them were from Left and 20 per cent were from Congress,” Paul said.

He also expressed his gratitude to the central government for supporting Tripura by providing funds and for benefitting the people of the state with welfare schemes. “As you know that Tripura is lacking its indigenous industries. We are grateful to the centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his government has been supporting the state in all sort. Tripura shares 80 per cent of its peripheral as the border with Bangladesh. There are hilly areas with tangled topography. Hence, development, road connectivity, rail connectivity etc have always been intricated,” he said adding, “However, we have now rail connectivity with other states. A total of 18 express trains are operational in the State of Tripura with other states across the country. We have also proposed to operate international flights from Agartala to neighbouring countries. Maitre Setu, a bridge over the river Feni connecting Tripura with the Chittagong seaport of Bangladesh is likely to be operational by this year. This will help to grow the adjacent areas as an important business hub.”

However, experts feel that changing chief ministers about a year before the elections to beat anti-incumbency against them, has worked for the BJP. The party has been able to edge out the challenge from the Congress-Left alliance and the Tipra Mohta to settle a win in the state. While quizzed, Paul agreed and said, “Bharatiya Janata Party is a cadre-based party. When there are complaints from the party workers against any candidate or disagreement on anybody’s policy, they get dropped from the post or replaced by someone more efficient. It is not new to BJP. You can check the history and there are examples in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand.”

However, the former state minister and now the deputy speaker of the Assembly feels that the incumbent BJP regime has to fulfil its promises than talk as both the Left and Congress still are having stipulated vote bank, which dented BJP’s vote-share than the erstwhile mandate.