Agartala, June 29 (IANS): Amid dissidence and discontent among a section of the legislators and leaders, the ruling BJP in the state along with the party's central leaders, have initiated a series of meetings to strengthen the organisation before the 2023 Tripura Assembly polls.
Tripura Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party chief spokesman Subrata Chakraborty on Tuesday said that after the Monday's State Executive meeting, which was held after 10 months due to the Covid pandemic, district and 'Mandal' (state Assembly constituency) level executive meetings would be completed by July 15.
Though Chakraborty said that these meetings have no relation with the next Assembly elections, due in one and a-half-years, the political circles observed that the ruling party has seriously taken initiatives to further consolidate the party organisations in the midst of dissidence of a section of legislators and leaders.
To quell the dissidence and differences, besides the State Executive meeting two other very important meetings were held in less than ten days.
On June 16, BJP's national General Secretary, Organisation, B.L. Santosh, General Secretary in-charge of the Northeast region Ajay Jamwal and central observer Fanindra Nath Sharma rushed to the state and held a series of meetings for two days with the state leaders, legislators, ministers and other party functionaries.
Another central observer Vinod Sonkar was scheduled to come on June 16 but his tour was cancelled at the last minute.
In the Monday's meeting, where the dissident leaders and MLAs led by former Minister Sudip Roy Barman remained absent, Nath Sharma physically attended while BJP's strategist and National General Secretary Bhupender Yadav and Sonkar virtually participated in the meeting from Delhi.
A BJP insider said that at least ten of the party's 36 MLAs did not participate in the June 25 crucial meeting held in the state Assembly conference hall.
BJP spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharjee said senior leaders are thinking about those MLAs and leaders who remained absent without informing the party.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, a former state BJP President, who attended all the three important meetings, asked all the leaders, ministers, MLAs and functionaries to maintain close relations with a cross section of the people to make the party base more strong.
Emphasising on triple 'S' -- 'Sambad' (information), 'Swabhav' (good relations) and 'Sadachar' (good behaviour), Deb said if the party leaders and functionaries sincerely work for the people's welfare, the BJP would be able to defeat the other parties in the coming elections.
Strong speculations about a fresh political development in Tripura are rife after BJP national Vice President Mukul Roy along with his son Subhrangshu Roy rejoined the ruling Trinamool Congress on June 11 in Kolkata.
Roy, before joining the BJP around four years ago, had often visited Tripura to supervise the Trinamool's organisational matters.
Under Roy's influence, seven Congress MLAs led by Sudip Roy Barman and a large number of party leaders and workers joined the Trinamool in 2016 and a year later joined the BJP, boosting the political strength of the saffron party.
All the seven were re-elected on the BJP tickets in the 2018 polls and among them Roy Barman, Pranajit Singha Roy and Ratan Lal Nath were made Ministers and Biswabandhu Sen appointed as Deputy Speaker.
Roy Barman, son of former Chief Minister and incumbent Congress leader Samir Ranjan Barman, became the Health and Family Welfare, Information Technology and Science and Technology Minister, but was sacked in May 2019 following differences of opinion with Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
At Least 11 BJP legislators and some party leaders led by Roy Barman and fellow MLAs and former party Vice President Ram Prasad Paul went to Delhi in October last year to discuss "party affairs in Tripura with the central leadership".
Amid dissidence and discontent among a section of the BJP leaders and legislators, Chief Minister Deb in December last year announced to take "public mandate" through public gatherings in Agartala but subsequently with the request of the central and state leaders, the plan was called off.