BJP’s Biswabandhu elected Tripura speaker; Tipra Motha abstains from voting

Agartala: BJP MLA Biswabandhu Sen was elected the speaker of the Tripura assembly on Friday.

Sen received 32 votes, while opposition CPI(M)-Congress candidate Gopal Chandra Roy got 14 votes.

Tipra Motha, which has 13 members in the assembly, stayed away from the voting.

Although CPIM and Congress leaders repeatedly claimed that TIPRA Motha would also vote for their candidate, TIPRA leaders never supported the opposition candidate. And when the speaker election process started, TMP MLAs walked out of the house protesting the seating arrangements.

Sen, a four-time MLA from Dharmanagar in North Tripura district, was the deputy speaker in the previous assembly.

In the Tripura assembly, the BJP-IPFT alliance has 33 MLAs, while the opposition Congress and CPI-M jointly have 14 legislators.

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