By Firstdespatch Desk Sep 22, 2022
Agartala, September 22 (FD) Former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who contested for the lone Rajya Sabha seat was declared as an elected member of the Rajya Sabha in the by-election held today.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said, the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared Deb as victorious with 43 votes, against 15 votes cast in favour of his opponent and Left Front candidate Bhanulal Saha.
Jubiliant party workers gathered in front of the BJP main office at Krishnanagar here and beat drums and distributed sweets to celebrate his victory.
BJP has 36 members in the 60-member state legislative assembly, its ruling alliance partner Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) has 7 after disqualification of one for defecting to another party while opposition CPIM and Congress have 15 and 1 seats in the House respectively.
As per reports, the lone Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman didn't turn up to cast his vote.
Speaking to reporters after casting vote at the state assembly building this morning, Deb said, "Let the results come at 5 PM as per procedure. I shall speak after that. But as far as public aspirations are concerned, people of Tripura realized the true meaning of vikas after 2018, after the BJP-IPFT government was established here under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I've worked as CM before; people will be the judge for that. Now I've been chosen to contest for the Rajya Sabha and if elected, I shall try to honestly do any job given by the central government or for the overall development of Tripura".
He also thanked PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for giving him the opportunity to contest the elections.
Deb, who was recently put in charge of BJP in Haryana, also said he feels working in the land of Kurukshetra and Panipat battles is a great experience for him and said he is grateful to the party's central leadership for choosing him for the job from a small state like Tripura.
On balancing his work between the Parliamentary assignment and organisational role, Deb said working for the party is taught to them as a natural habit.
"I've already started working in Haryana and shall work for the Parliament as well, in any capacity entrusted by the central government", he said.
Incumbent Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, who also cast his vote for Deb this morning, said, "It's feeling very good. Whenever BJP gives responsibility to anyone, we render our duty responsibly. Everyone voted for me last time. This time, we have come to vote for our nominated candidate. And I'm sure IPFT and BJP MLAs will vote in favour of our candidate and former CM Biplab Kumar Deb and make him victorious with a huge margin".
While the Rajya Sabha by-poll results were nearly certain, given the party whip applied for the process along with the absolute majority of BJP with 36 MLAs in the 60 member state assembly, the CM said he considers all elections equally important and said his party is "fully prepared" for all elections to come.
"We are fully prepared. Our karyakartas are deputed at the grass root level and I think we shall get more seats in 2023 than previous elections", he said. FD JK