Narendra Chandra Debbarma, president of the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) coalition partner, caught everyone’s attention at his oath-taking as a Cabinet Minister here on Monday. The octogenarian leader, who recently fought off his baiters and retained his position in the party, held a magnifying glass in one hand to read the paper with the oath of allegiance in the other.
Mr. Debbarma, who hasn’t been keeping well over the past year and has spent a few months in hospital, remains at the epicentre of tribal politics despite his frail health.
In Chief Minister Manik Saha new Cabinet, he not only ensured his place, but also prevailed on the BJP leadership to drop his sworn opponent, Mevar Kumar Jamatia, who held the important Forest and Tribal Welfare portfolios in the previous Biplab Kumar Deb council. Mr. Deb resigned, making way for Dr. Saha’s chief ministership.
