New Tripura ministry to be sworn in today

The new council of ministers of Tripura headed by Manik Sarkar to be sworn-in at the Raj Bhavan in Agartala on Wednesday will have two new faces, while a veteran Left Front leader has been dropped. The decision on the new 12-member ministry was taken at the meeting of the Left Front Committee on Tuesday evening, LF convenor and MP Khagen Das said. The distribution of the portfolios, however, would be the prerogative of the chief minister, he said. Sarkar would be the LF chief minister of the state for the fourth straight time. Outgoing Information and Higher Education minister Anil Sarkar, who was elected uninterruptedly since Tripura was declared a full fledge state in 1972, would be dropped from the ministry this time as he would be made the vice-president of the state's Planning Commission, he said. A fresh face would also be brought in to replace the lone minister from Front partner Revolutionary Socialist Party, Joy Gobinda Debroy, who contested from Radhakishorpur constituency but could not win. The two ministers replacing them would be former deputy speaker Bhanu Lal Saha and newly elected Ratan lal Bhowmick. The ten others have been ministers in the previous ministry and their portfolios would be 'more or less same', Das said. LF would field former speaker Ramendra Debnath for the same post and the chairman of Tripura Industrial Development Corporation (TIDC) Pabitra Kar would contest for the post of the deputy speaker. Meanwhile, Opposition Congress has announced that it would boycott the swearing-in on Wednesday in view of the alleged 'serious and consistent post-poll violence against the Congress workers and supporters all over the state and utter failure of the administration in containing violence'. Congress spokesman Ashok Sinha said the party has also decided that its new MLAs to take oath as members separately.