New Chief Minister of Tripura, Dr Manik Saha constituted his new cabinet and increased the strength of the cabinet to 12 members – one more than the cabinet under Biplab Kumar Deb. Dr Saha also proposed Jishnu Dev Varma as the Deputy Chief Minister like the previous cabinet.
As per the list, all but Mevar Kumar Jamatia were accommodated in the Cabinet – moreover, veteran indigenous leader and BJP MLA from Bagma made his maiden entry in the cabinet. Mevar Kumar Jamatia was replaced by IPFT MLA from Kanchanpur, Prem Kumar Reang.
The new cabinet was constituted following a meeting held at State Guest House, Agartala after the Chief Minister’s oath taking ceremony on Sunday. According to sources, the IPFT had demanded three berths in the cabinet – but like before, they had to contend with two berths.
The BJP ministers, who will take oath at Raj Bhavan on Monday, are – Jishnu Dev Varma, Ratanlal Nath, Pranajit Singha Roy, Manoj Kanti Deb, Santana Chakma, Ram Prasad Paul, Bhagaban Chandra Das, Sushanta Chowdhury and Rampada Jamatia. The two IPFT ministers are- Narendra Chandra Debbarma and Prem Kumar Reang.
The oath taking ceremony of the new council of ministers is slated to take place on Monday at RaJ Bhavan in presence of senior party leaders, MLAs, elected representatives and higher officials of all the departments.
After the formation of the first BJP government in 2018 under Biplab Kumar Deb, out of 12 posts only nine ministers were included. Later, the then Health Minister Sudip Roy Barman was dropped from the cabinet within a year and half reducing the cabinet strength to eight.
In 2021, three new faces were inducted in the Biplab Kumar Deb cabinet. They were Sushanta Chowdhury, Ram Prasad Paul and Bhagaban Chandra Das.
All the BJP MLAs who became ministers in Biplab Deb cabinet were once again inducted in the new council of ministers – in addition Rampada Jamatia was included pushing the BJP’s strength in the cabinet to 10 from nine.
Like before, BJP’s ally IPFT got two berths – however, this time Mevar Kumar Jamatia was dropped and Prem Kumar Reang took his place. With this, total strength of the Dr Manik Saha cabinet now stands at 12.
