Manik Saha Breaks Silence on 2022 CM Change
- By Thetripurapost Desk, Mohanpur
- Dec 14, 2025
- 1571
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha’s recent remarks in Mohanpur have once again brought into focus the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) highly centralised decision-making structure and its political calculus ahead of crucial elections in the Northeast and beyond.
By openly stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally decided his elevation as Chief Minister in March 2022, Saha has effectively dispelled lingering speculation about internal dissent or leadership rivalry within the state unit.
The replacement of Biplab Kumar Deb just months before the 2023 Assembly elections was widely seen as a high-risk political move.
Deb had been the face of the BJP’s historic rise in Tripura in 2018, ending decades of Left rule.
His sudden resignation in May 2022 triggered rumours of factionalism and governance-related dissatisfaction.
However, Saha’s public narrative reframes the transition as a smooth, centrally guided strategic decision rather than a fallout of internal conflict.
Saha’s emphasis that “in the BJP, the Prime Minister takes the decision on the chief minister” underlines the party’s command-style leadership, where authority flows from the top. Politically, this messaging serves two purposes: it reinforces Modi’s unquestioned leadership within the party, and it signals unity at the state level by closing the chapter on leadership speculation.
By acknowledging that even his own family was sceptical, Saha humanises the transition while reaffirming his loyalty to the party’s discipline-based structure.
Importantly, Saha went out of his way to credit Deb for his political rise — from enrolling him as a primary BJP member in 2016 to facilitating his elevation as state BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP.
This public acknowledgment appears politically calibrated, especially at a time when Deb has been assigned a key organisational role as deputy in-charge of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
The gesture indicates that the party is keen to project continuity rather than rupture, utilising Deb’s organisational strengths beyond Tripura.
The symbolic hug between Saha and Deb on stage further reinforces this message of unity.
In electoral politics, optics matter, and the BJP seems intent on countering opposition narratives that often portray leadership changes as signs of instability.
From a broader perspective, the success of the BJP in retaining power in Tripura in the February 2023 elections appears to validate the central leadership’s gamble.
Saha’s calm, low-profile image — contrasting with Deb’s more aggressive political style — helped the party recalibrate its governance narrative without alienating its organisational base.
In essence, Saha’s statements are not merely retrospective reflections but a political signal. They reaffirm the BJP’s top-down leadership model, project organisational unity, and strategically position both Saha and Deb as assets in the party’s long-term regional expansion plans, particularly in politically sensitive eastern states like West Bengal.