12 members Left Front cabinet sworn in

Agartala, Mar 06, 2013 : The Governor Dr D Y Patil administered the oath of office and secrecy to Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and 11 other cabinet ministers here at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday afternoon in a formal ceremony.

Manik Sarkar, Chief Minister of Tripura since 1998 took the oath of the office for fourth consecutive terms on Wednesday and CPI (M) led Left Front in Tripura assumed the office for the fifth consecutive terms.

Soon after the oath of chief minister, the others who took oath on Wednesday are Aghore Debbarma in Kokborok language, Badal Chaudhury in Bengali, Tapan Chakraborty in Bengali, Manik Dey in Bengali, Jitendra Chaudhury in English, Khagendra Jamatia in Kokborok, Manindra Reang in Bengali, Bijita Nath,lone female minister in the cabinet also took the oath in Bengali, Sahid Chowdhury in English are all members of the previous Left Front ministry.

There are two first-time minister in the council of ministers, they are Bhanulal Saha, took the oath in Bengali and Ratan Bhowmik also took the oath in Bengali. Saha was deputy speaker in the outgoing assembly.

Among the 12 ministers, eleven are from the CPI (M) and only Manindra Reang from the Communist Party of India (CPI).

CPI(M) Politbureau member Sitaram Yechury, West Bengal opposition leader Surya Kanta Mishra, CPI(M) Assam unit secretary Udhab Barman, senior party leaders and top officials attended the swearing in ceremony.

Three formers DGPs, G M Srivastava, Pranay Sahay, incumbent Director General of CRPF, incumbent Special Director of CBI, K Saleem Ali and other top administrative officials of civil administration were also present in the ceremony.

The opposition Congress, Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT)-National Conference of Tripura (NCT) alliance boycotted the swearing in ceremony in allegation of ‘large-scale post poll violence in various parts of the state sponsored by LF cadres’.

Recently, concluded 11th assembly elections of Tripura, the Left Front recorded a massive victory in the February 14 polls, the results of which were announced February 28 last, where LF secured 50 seats in the 60-member assembly and opposition Congress get only 10 seats.

However, Left Front secured over 52.30 percent votes while the Congress-INPT alliance got 44.60 percent of votes in the election. 

Later, in the afternoon Chief Minister Manik Sarkar called his first cabinet meeting here at Civil Secretariat and will declare the portfolios of the council of ministers.