Tripura CM meets PM, rules out creation of tribal homeland

New Delhi, Mar 19: New Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and his deputy Jishnu Deb Barma called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and discussed about developmental issues.

"Our meeting was very fruitful. We had a few issues to discuss with Prime Minister. It was a good meeting,"
Mr Deb later told here.
Answering questions, Mr Deb clarified that the BJP's alliance with the tribal-based party Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) is strictly for "development" and has nothing to do with the demand for carving out of a new or a separate homeland for the tribals.
"Our alliance is strictly for development.....We have spoken to them even before elections chiefly on the issue
of development, cultural and educational upliftment of the people. We are not going to talk anything else," he said in reference to IPFT's demand that a separate tribal homeland be created in the state.
The BJP-IPFT took over the reins of governance in Tripura on March 9, 2018 dethroning the Marxists - who were in power for the last two decades.
Mr Deb, who has started taking a few drastic decisions like suspending officials based on on-the-spot feedback for their negligence, skirted a direct reply when he was compared with the protagonist of a Bollywood film 'Nayak' starred by Anil Kapoor among others.
".....so far we have suspended three of them," he said sporting a smile avoiding any direct reply whether he was trying to follow the film protagonist played by Anil Kapoor.
Several Parliament officials and security personnel posed for selfies with the new Chief Minister. 
In the past, Mr Deb also worked as an assistant to Ganesh Singh, the BJP's MP from Satna Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh.
Mr Deb and the Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Deb Barma the lawmakers attended the lunch hosted by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on the occasion of 'Gudi Padwa'. UNI