Tripura Assembly polls: BJP holds key planning meet in Guwahati

Guwahati/Agartala, Aug 24 With Tripura Assembly elections just six months away, Chief Minister Manik Saha held a key meeting in Guwahati on Wednesday with his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma and central BJP leaders to chalk out the poll strategy.

Sources in Guwahati said that in the four-hour-long meeting, Saha, who is also the state BJP chief, and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, Sarma, BJP national General Secretary B.L. Santosh, national Vice President Baijayant Jay Panda, and central observer for Tripura Fanindra Nath Sharma discussed the initial strategies for the election, expected to be held in February next year.

The issue of whether to continue the alliance with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) also came up.

Sarma, BJP's leading strategist and convener of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), played a significant role in the 2018 Assembly elections in Tripura when the saffron party led alliance defeated the CPI-M led Left Front after 25 years.

BJP President J.P Nadda and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat are expected to separately visit the state next week.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday removed Subal Bhowmik as President of its Tripura state committee. According to party sources, Bhowmik, who was earlier in the BJP, is likely to re-join it during Nadda's upcoming visit.

The former Congress MLA was appointed Trinamool's Tripura state chief in April end.

Bhowmik, before joining the Congress in 2020 for the second time, was in the BJP.