Agartala: The ruling BJP in Tripura has continued to riddle with factional feud after sudden resignation of Biplab Kumar Deb from the post of Chief Minister and selection of Dr Manik Saha as his successor on May 14 last.
Team Deb has been accused of conspiring against the Deputy Chief Minister and well-accepted leader of the state Jishnu Dev Varma within the party to prevent his elevation as Chief Minister.
Besides, opposition Trinamool Congress, Congress and CPI-M have also, smelled something unusual to put Dr Saha in the chair, who didn’t aspire to the post or was not willing to become Chief Minister.
A day after the resignation of Biplab Deb, a note has been circulated on the social media describing that Deb was forced to relinquish the post following some serious charges including womanizing, financial corruption and political vendetta.
Deb’s wife has also, registered an FIR with West Agartala Police Station on Tuesday night claiming the note as false, defamatory and full of incitement and sought lawful action.
However, police sources said that the note was circulated on social media from a deactivated phone number and the source was unknown.
The note detailed some specific charges against Biplab Deb including the case references, which was claimed to be circulated among the top brasses of BJP in New Delhi long ago. The party had to take the call after due investigation and forced him to resign, BJP sources said.
The TMC leader and former BJP MLA Ashis Das told media, “After confirmation of resign, Biplab Kr Deb had plotted Deputy CM Jishnu Dev Varma’s son Prateek Kishore Dev Varma on May 11 night in a star hotel here where he was seen allegedly misbehaved with the parliamentary panel with an intention to malign Dev Varma and prevent his elevation to CM post.”
He questioned how Prateek was inside the lobby in inebriated condition when parliamentarians were sitting and who had collected the CCTV footage from the hotel immediately after the incident and sent it to the national media overnight. This was not the first incident; Prateek was entangled in a similar incident a few months ago when TMC MP Sushmita Dev was in the hotel.
“In both the incidents, Prateek was invited in the hotel with the direction of some influential people and he was made drunk and instigated for creating nuisance. The plot was created only when Deb confirmed that his departure was certain. He wanted to prevent Dev Varma and elevate his choice Dr Saha to retain his control over the government,” Das alleged.
A section of BJP insiders have also subscribed to Das and raised demand for an enquiry.
According to BJP leaders, Chief Minister’s son had done several such incidents in public places including beating up an on-duty policeman and BJP youth front leader. But it was not found in any media. Biplab’s wife was accused of running an NGO which allegedly accepted foreign grants without having FCRA registration but no enquiry was initiated yet.
The opposition CPI-M and Congress separately sought reason from BJP about the resignation of Deb and clarification over the allegations surfaced against him.
