Agartala: One more legislator of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT), a junior ally of the ruling BJP, resigned from the Assembly on Tuesday.
Mevar Kumar Jamatia, who had been the Forest and Tribal Welfare Minister in BJP-IPFT government, immediately after submitting his resignation letter to assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty and from the party, told IANS that he would decide in a day or two about his next course of action.
Chakraborty told IANS that he immediately accepted Jamatiya’s resignation letter.
Top political sources said that the tribal leader is likely to join the influential tribal based party Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance (TIPRA), headed by former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman or the ruling BJP.
Both Deb Barman and BJP leaders separately told IANS that they welcome him into their party.
Recently, due to internal feud, Jamatia kept distance with the IPFT while his wife Gita Debbarma joined the TIPRA fuelling speculations that he may also join it.
The 53-year-old Jamatia, who was elected from the Asharambari Assembly constituency in Khowai district in the 2018 polls, is the third IPFT MLA to quit the Assembly since last year.
On October 14, IPFT MLA Dhananjoy Tripura, accompanied by TIPRA supremo Deb Barman, submitted his resignation letter to the Speaker, who immediately accepted it.
Dhananjoy Tripura and a few other leaders of different political parties, later joined TIPRA. IPFT MLA Brishaketu Debbarma also resigned from the Assembly in June last year and joined the TIPRA.
With the resignation of Jamatia, the IPFT’s strength reduced to five from eight.
He is the seventh MLA of the BJP-IPFT ruling alliance to quit. Earlier BJP MLAs Burba Mohan Tripura, Ashis Das, Sudip Roy Barman, and Ashis Kumar Saha also quit the party and the Assembly after open differences with then Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
Das joined the Trinamool Congress last year but quit it in May this year while Roy Barman, also a former BJP Minister, and Saha joined the Congress in February this year.
Burba Mohan Tripura, also a tribal leader, joined TIPRA, which is now ruling the politically-important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).
–IANS