Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha has said BJP gives recognition to honesty, interiority, and determination towards work. Speaking at a party programme in the Nalchar area of Sepahijala district on Thursday, the chief minister claimed he became a Rajya Sabha member because of his performance. “I had doubled the number of party members as an in-charge of booth management and membership in Tripura. “If you work for the party in a dedicated way, you will certainly get everything,” Saha said.?

The 69-year-old dentist-turned politician currently is a Rajya Sabha MP and the BJP state president. He was elected as an MLA in the recently concluded bypoll. Previously, he held the post of president of Tripura Cricket Association (TCA). However, he is yet to take oath as a member of the Assembly. The chief minister said holding so many posts makes him “eligible for inclusion” of his name in a record book.?

Saha was sworn as the chief minister of Tripura after Biplab Kumar Deb abruptly resigned on May 14. He was appointed the BJP’s Tripura president in 2020 and elected as a Rajya Sabha member in April this year. Three newly-elected MLAs of Tripura took oath on June 28, but Saha who won the June 23 by-election to become a legislator was not sworn in by the speaker. "It appears that the chief minister is likely to take oath after the presidential elections. The decision will be taken by the BJP high command," Speaker Ratan Chakraborty had said. ? ?

After being appointed chief minister, Saha has six months' time to become a member of the assembly, as per the rules. Without naming former chief minister Manik Sarkar, Saha said ?“The former Marxist CM used to say doctors and engineers could never become good human beings. Now, I want to ask, is becoming a CPI (M) leader the only yardstick for being a sensible person?"?

(With PTI Inputs)