A day after quitting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and assembly, Tripura MLA Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl on Thursday joined the Congress.
Hrangkhawl who was representing the Karamcherra seat in the Dhalai District of Tripura was a four-time MLA.
Hrangkhawl resigned from the assembly and the party citing "personal" reasons.
He had won on a BJP ticket from the Karamcharra constituency in 2018 after quitting the Congress. Hrangkhawl's resignation has taken the number of MLAs to have quit the ruling BJP-IPFT coalition in Tripura to eight and the fifth BJP MLA since 2021 in the poll-bound state.
The strength of the BJP in the Assembly is now 34 while that of the IPFT is five, more than the majority mark of 29 in the 56-member assembly.
Earlier, Burba Mohan Tripura, Ashis Das, Sudip Roy Barman and Ashish Kumar Saha had quit the BJP and the assembly since 2021.
The MLAs who quit the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura were Dhananjoy Tripura, Brishaketu Debbarma and former minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia.
Tripura state BJP state spokesperson Subrata Chakrabarty, while talking about Diba's resignation, said that it would not affect the party.
"Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl was such an MLA, who was not physically well and was not delivering services properly as per the commitment of an MLA. What he was supposed to deliver to the public as an MLA, he was failing in that. He knew it. Besides, if anybody wants to work or stay in BJP for any personal benefit, then he can never get a place here. BJP can't be utilised for any personal interest," Subrata Chakrabarty said.
He further said, "The attitude and mental preparedness to serve the people should be there in the mind of the leader. If somebody doesn't have the speciality to work for the public and if the leader himself feels it; he should leave BJP."
While the BJP lost its fifth MLA since 2021, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura has seen three of its MLAs joining the Tipra Motha, a regional party that has emerged as a key player in the polls to be held early next year.
