Union minister Pratima Bhoumik resigns as MLA in Tripura

Pratima Bhoumik, the union minister of state for social justice and empowerment, has resigned from the state legislature while remaining as a member of the union council of ministers.

At the recently ended assembly elections in the state, Pratima was elected from her native Dhanpur assembly constituency against CPI (M) candidate Kaushik Chanda.

She was also considered as a possible chief ministerial candidate, but the central BJP leadership, notably Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda, chose Dr Manik Saha as chief minister.

In reality, throughout the election campaign, Amit Shah openly positioned Dr Manik Saha as the BJP's chief ministerial face.

Also Read: Tripura: Development is the main agenda of BJP government, says CM Manik Saha

According to BJP sources, Pratima is eager to return to state politics, but the party's top leadership has given her no choice and she will either file papers resigning as MLA or skip the MLA swearing-in on March 16, which will automatically forfeit her membership in the assembly unless she seeks a new date for swearing in alone.
 Speaking to media persons here, Bhoumik said, "My best wishes to the Pro-tem speaker Binay Bhusan Das as the BJP has selected him for the post and today, he assumed charge of his office.”

She said that she won the Dhanpur assembly Constituency on March 02 and accordingly as she is holding two respectful posts which are not permissible, she had to resign.

"The BJP central leadership had directed me to contest in the Dhanpur assembly constituency despite being a member of Lok Sabha and Union Minister of State. And, on the advice of my party, I tendered my resignation from the post of MLA in Dhanpur seat to the Protem Speaker in the state assembly premises”, she added.

Bhoumik was accompanied by Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare minister Ratan Lal Nath.