KOLKATA/AGARTALA, Oct 5 : A day after praising West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dissident BPP MLA from Tripura, Ashis Das, claimed on Tuesday that political anarchy and chaos are prevailing in the saffron party ruled state, further fuelling speculation of him joining the Trinamool Congress.
Das, after shaving his head and performing a ‘yagna’ at the Kalight temple in Kolkata, said that political anarchy and chaos are prevailing in BJP-ruled Tripura where people are unhappy with the performance of the state government.
Refusing to disclose whether he would join the Trinamool Congress, the 43-year-old BHJ MLA told the media: “You will find out everything soon.”
Reacting to the remarks of Das, Tripura BJP chief Manik Saha said that they are observing everything and appropriate steps would be taken in due course of time.
“His (Das’) activities have not been normal for sometime now. The party would take action against him after examining the steps he took,” Saha told IANS in Agartala.
On Monday, talking to the media in Kolkata, Das, an MLA from the Surma Assembly seat in northern Tripura, also criticised the Prime Minister for “selling most the government properties to private parties”.
“Once Modi’s messages stirred the minds of people from all sections across the country. Modi had once said that ‘Na khaunga, na khane dunga’, but now it has become a popular jumla (joke) in the country,” he said.
He had also said that both at the Centre and the states, the BJP has been running governments in an “autocratic style”.
Praising Banerjee for winning the bypoll in Bhabanipur by a record margin, the BJP MLA had said that many people and organisations want Banerjee as the Prime Minister and her elevation to the post is very crucial as she is a Bengali.
Das, who is in Kolkata for the past three days, is likely to meet Trinamool Congress leaders in the city.
Das and four other BJP MLAs — Sudip Roy Barman, Ashis Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl and Burba Mohan Tripura — recently held a big gathering in Agartala which was attended ny many local BJP leaders and workers.
To plug the rebellion in the organisation and to set the governance right, several central party leaders led by BJP’s North East Zonal Secretary (Organisation), Ajay Jamwal, have rushed to the state several times.
In another recent political development, Tripura Assembly Speaker Rebati Mohan Das resigned from his post citing “personal reasons” and Congress-turned-BJP legislator Ratan Chakraborty was chosen for the post on September 24.
The open dissent and internal dispute in the ruling BJP began after Barman, who was holding the Health and Information Technology portfolios, was sacked from the council of ministers in May 2019 following differences with Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
IANS