The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi attending the oath taking ceremony of Biplab Kumar Deb as Chief Minister of Tripura, in Agartala on March 09, 2018. The Governor of Tripura, Tathagata Roy is also seen. (PIB Photo)
Agartala, March 9 (PTI): Biplab Kumar Deb was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tripura today, officially ushering the first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the Left bastion.
Governor Tathagata Roy also administered the oath of office to BJP leader Jishnu Deb Burman as the Deputy Chief Minister along with seven other Ministers, including IPFT chief N C Debbarma.
The 48-year-old Deb will be the second youngest Chief Minister of India after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (47).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh were present.
Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States – Vijay Rupani (Gujarat), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Sarbananda Sonowal (Assam), Raghubar Das (Jharkhand) besides others also attended the function.
Outgoing Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar too attended the event.
Speaking to the press before the ceremony, Deb said, “I love the people of Tripura. I even love the Communists and Manik Sarkar, but I am annoyed that they got so much time but did not utilise the resources of the State to develop it. We will rebuild Tripura from scratch.”
The BJP won 35 of 59 seats in the Assembly elections conducted on 27 February and its ally, the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura, won eight. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) managed to win only 16 seats.
