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Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Friday allocated the portfolios among his cabinet colleagues, while keeping over 30 departments including Home, Health, PWD, Information and Cultural Affairs, Education, Forest departments with himself.
Saha along with eight other cabinet ministers took oath days after the BJP-IPFT alliance retained power in Tripura for the second straight term. The BJP won 32 seats in the 60-member state assembly. The elections were held on February 16. According to a notification issued by Chief Secretary J.K. Sinha, the Power and Agriculture departments have been entrusted to Ratan Lal Nath, who held the Education and Law portfolios in the previous government. The crucial Finance, Planning, Coordination along with Information Technology departments have been allocated to former Agriculture, Transport, and Tourism minister, Pranajit Singha Roy while Food, Civil Supplies, Transport, and Tourism departments were allocated to former Information and Cultural Affairs and Sports Minister Sushanta Chowdhury. The Industries and Commerce, Welfare of Other Backward Communities was given to the lone woman minister, Santana Chakma. Youth Affairs, Sports and Labour departments were allocated to new minister Tinku Roy, Tribal Welfare to Bikash Debbarma, Scheduled Caste Welfare and Animal Resource development to Sudhanshu Das. Shukla Charan Noatia, who is the lone minister of BJP's ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura in the alliance government, has been allocated Cooperation and Minorities Welfare. Three ministerial berths remained vacant as the BJP has been approaching tribal based Tipra Motha Party (TMP) to participate in the BJP-led government. Four ministers of the first BJP led government -- Ram Prasad Paul, Bhagaban Das, Manoj Kanti Deb and Rampada Jamatia -- did not find place in the second saffron party-led government. Though the BJP has been frantically approaching the TMP to join the government, the tribal based party supremo Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman had said: "If we find satisfactory constitutional solutions to our demands, we would sign an accord with the Central government. Unless and until our demands are resolved, we will not join the BJP-led government in Tripura." The TMP, after capturing the politically important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) in April 2021, has been demanding elevation of the areas of the autonomous body by granting a 'Greater Tipraland State' or a separate state under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. The BJP in the February 16 assembly polls won 32 seats alone while its ally IPFT secured one seat in the 60-member assembly. Securing 13 seats, the TMP emerged as the second single largest party as the main opposition CPI-M, which governed the state for 35 years in two phases (1978-1988 and 1993-2018) bagged 11 seats and the Congress managed three. --IANS sc/pgh ( 456 Words) 2023-03-10-20:46:03 (IANS)
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