Agartala, July 5: In a development that has set political circles abuzz in Tripura, former Chief Minister and BJP Lok Sabha MP Biplab Kumar Deb paid a late evening visit to Tipra Motha supremo Pradyot Kishore Debbarma at the royal Ujjayanta Palace on Saturday — barely hours after a Tipra Motha MLA publicly threatened to withdraw support from the BJP-led state government.
While both leaders downplayed the meeting, calling it a “courtesy visit” to wish Pradyot a belated happy birthday — his birthday was on Friday — the timing of the interaction has sparked intense speculation in political corridors.
The surprise meeting comes on the heels of growing friction between Tipra Motha and Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha’s BJP government over the alleged delay in implementing the much-hyped Tiprasa Accord and the government’s inaction on stopping illegal infiltration from across the Bangladesh border.
Earlier on Saturday, a senior Tipra Motha MLA Ranjit Debbarma openly threatened that the party would consider withdrawing support from the ruling coalition if the state and central governments continued to ignore the demands enshrined in the Accord signed in March 2024. The statement had created political tremors, putting pressure on the ruling dispensation.
In this context, Biplab Deb’s unannounced visit to the palace — long regarded as a political nerve centre for Tripura’s indigenous politics — has triggered questions over whether the BJP’s central leadership is stepping in to pacify Tipra Motha and prevent a potential rupture in the alliance.
Sources close to both camps remained tight-lipped about the details of the meeting, though a palace insider confirmed that discussions between the two leaders lasted for over an hour in a closed-door setting.
Notably, Biplab Deb, despite no longer being the Chief Minister, retains considerable influence within the party and has often acted as a bridge between New Delhi and Tripura’s regional actors. His outreach to Pradyot Kishore — at a moment of high political tension — is being viewedaq as a potential move to ease the growing strain between BJP and its tribal ally.
Pradyot, who recently warned the Centre that the patience of his people was “running out,” had also refrained from attending recent BJP-led state events, adding to the buzz of a brewing crisis in the ruling coalition.
As the BJP leadership continues to monitor the situation closely, the big question remains: Was Biplab Deb’s visit truly a birthday courtesy, or the first step in damage control before an alliance unravels?
