Agartala: Tripura after independence represented for the first time by a daughter of the soil in the union council of ministers today with the swearing-in of 52-yrs old Loksabha Member Pratima Bhoumik.
She is the first time MP elected in 2019 as BJP nominee, a down to earth politician who comes from a humble background who practised farming in her native village in the bordering town Sonamura of Sepahijala district in West Tripura. She graduated in life science from Women’s College of Agartala.
After obtaining a degree in 1991, Bhoumik had gone back to the village to support her father in farming and small business. Besides household assignments, she was attracted to the activities of Rashtriya Swang Sevak and subsequently got involved in the BJP party. She is one of the few oldest surviving leaders of BJP in Tripura.
Tripura has been represented in the union council of ministers only twice before Pratima Bhoumik after a merger with the Indian union in 1949.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University Dr Triguna Sen had been nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha from Tripura twice in 1967 and 1968. Later on, he became the union minister for education.
Afterwards, Congress stalwart of Assam’s Barak Valley Late Santosh Mohan Deb had been elected twice from Tripura in 1989 and 1991 and he had been made the union minister of state for steel (independent charge) till 1996. Although both the stalwarts represented Tripura in the union cabinet, they were more inclined to the interests of West Bengal and Assam than Tripura.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma congratulated Pratima Bhoumik on her induction in the union cabinet and said that Tripura after 75 years of independence has truly been represented at the centre with the commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the people of the state. (UNI)