Hyderabad: Buoyed by the unprecedented victory in Bengal last May coupled with Mamata Banerjee's once blue-eyed boy Mukul Roy's return to the party, TMC is not wasting any moment to make a fervent pitch in BJP-ruled Tripura, which is fractured with dissidence. With the state going to polls in 2023, TMC will predictably unlatch its apparatus to the fullest to repeat the Bengal sweep in Tripura, although only time will tell the final outcome.
As of now the BJP in Tripura is assiduously occupied in containing the dissent against Chief Minister Biplab Deb. Going by the central leadership's unusual interference in the state's day-to-day affairs the crisis may not drag to a ugly conclusion as one may believe. Yet, in politics nothing can be left unaddressed, and it is here the TMC might step in to upset the BJP cart.
Irrespective of what one might say, Mukul Roy is just not any other leader. More than anyone else Mamata Banerjee knows Mukul's political worth, and his capabilities. He has been instrumental in planting TMC roots in Bengal, his exit from TMC has dented the party's image so much so that it has later emboldened some of party key leaders including Suvendu Adhikari and others to switch over to BJP.
Matters in Tripura took a ugly turn in October last year when BJP leader Sudip Roy Barman had led more than half-a-dozen of the BJP’s 36 MLAs (in a House of 60) to Delhi seeking a leadership change in the state. The BJP central leadership did not take it lightly then, and in a way subtly snubbed Roy Barman.
In less than a year, the Tripura crisis has now escalated to serious proportions especially after Mukul Roy rejoined the TMC. Roy Barman and Co's high-pitched shrill went far beyond the state. The BJP central leadership had to rush a team to placate the disgruntled leaders in the state. Let's not forget that it was Mukul who played a key role in making Roy Burman and six others switch sides from the TMC to the BJP in 2017; a reverse is now not an impossible task.
Fearing defection to the TMC, a team of BJP senior leaders, including party general secretary organisation BL Santhosh and Northeast zonal secretary Ajay Jamwal rushed to Tripura, where the BJP came to power in 2018. Mukul and Roy Barman's equation go well beyond political arithmetic, and the BJP is well-aware of it. It won't be an uphill task for Barman to inflame and create cracks in Tripura dispensation, should that be the case then BJP might experience some sleepless nights.
