Tripura CM quits RS membership, to take oath as Assembly member on July 8

Agartala, July 4 (PTI): Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, who was elected to the state Assembly on June 23, resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Monday and will take oath as member of the Assembly on July 8, officials said. Saha on Monday met Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi and handed over his resignation letter to him.

“Today, I have submitted my resignation letter as MP, Rajya Sabha to the Hon’ble Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu ji. I shall always remain grateful to our Hon’ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji, National President of BJP Shri JP Nadda ji,” he tweeted later.

The 69-year-old Congress-turned-BJP leader was elected to the Rajya Sabha from the lone seat in Tripura on March 31. Tripura assembly Secretary Bishnu Pada Karmakar quoting state assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty told IANS that Saha, 69, would take oath as member of the state assembly on July 8.

Winning from the Town Bordowali Assembly constituency, Saha, who’s also the state unit chief of the BJP, took oath as the Chief Minister on May 15, a day after Biplab Kumar Deb resigned from the top post. Saha contested elections for the first time in his three-decade long political career.

To fulfil the constitutional obligation, he had to become a member of the Assembly within six months. In the June 23 by-polls, result of which was declared on June 26, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won three of the four seats including that of Saha, who defeated Congress candidate Asish Kumar Saha by a margin of 6,104 votes. The other three newly elected members — Sudip Roy Barman (Congress) and Malina Debnath and Swapna Das (Paul), both BJP — took oath as members of the Tripura assembly on June 28.