Biplab Kumar Deb (born 25 November 1971) is an Indian politician and former

Chief Minister of Tripura The Chief Minister of Tripura, an Indian state, is the head of the Government of Tripura. As per the Constitution of India, the Governor of Tripura is the state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief mini ...

. He was the state unit president of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

from 7 January 2016 up to 2018. He led the BJP to victory in the 2018 Legislative Assembly Election, ending the twenty-five year rule of the Left Front government led by the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

. He took his oath as the tenth Chief Minister of Tripura on 9 March 2018. Deb resigned from the post on 14 May 2022, a year ahead of elections.

Early life

Biplab Deb was born on 25 November 1971 in Rajdhar Nagar village,

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

Gomati district Gomati district is a district of Tripura, India. This district was created in January 2012 when four new districts were created in Tripura, taking the number of districts in the state from four to eight. Udaipur is its headquarters. The district ...

. His parents had migrated to India as refugees from

Chandpur District Chandpur District () is a district located in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. It was a part of the Cumilla District until 15 February 1984.Musa, Muhammad. Brahmanbariar Itibrittyo, Shetu Prokashoni, Brahmanbaria,1998. History During the ru ...

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

during liberation war in 1971 before his birth. His father is a citizen of India since 27 June 1967. He spent his childhood and schooling days in Tripura, completing his graduation from

Tripura University Tripura University is a central university, the main public government university of Tripura, India. History Higher education in Tripura has its beginning with Maharaja Bir Bikram College (MBBC), the first-degree college in the state, establ ...

before shifting to

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. He later returned to Tripura after an absence of 15 years.

Political career

Deb was elected the President of Tripura state unit of BJP in January 2017 replacing Sudhindra Dasgupta who was BJP's longest serving state president. He started his political career by campaigning for the 2018 state election. He began his campaign from the

Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) is an autonomous district council administering the Tipra-dominated areas of the state of Tripura, India. Its council and assembly are situated in Khumulwng, a town 26 km away ...

which was believed to be the base of the then governing

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the nati ...

. On 8 August 2017 Biplab Deb helped bring about the defection of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

MLAs led by Sudip Roy Barman to the

. He led the local BJP into the 2018 Legislative Assembly election, attempting to gain office after 25 years of Left Front rule.

Chief Minister

Deb contested the election from Banamalipur Constituency in

Agartala Agartala () is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on ...

and won by a margin of 9,549 votes, which was held by

MLA Gopal Roy. Deb led the Tripura's Election campaign and defeated Left Front after 25 years by winning 44 seats with his ally Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura out of possible 60 seats in Tripura. Deb campaigned on the subject of youth employment opportunities, which he promised to improve if elected

. He also promised the employees of Tripura that he would implement the 7th Pay Commission once he got elected. Deb brought in key BJP ministers from across India to campaign for the party in Tripura. He took his oath as the 10th Chief Minister of Tripura on 9 March 2018. He resigned from the post on 14 May 2022.

Controversies

In April 2018, Deb stirred nationwide controversy by claiming Internet existed during the times of the Mahabharata He claimed that the oxygen levels will automatically rise in water bodies if ducks swim in them and wants every family to rear ducks and that his government plans to distribute 50,000 ducklings to villagers who lived near water bodies. He also made controversial remarks on the Civil Service Examination, stating that only civil engineers should sit for civil service exams. While addressing a function, Deb once again was surrounded in a controversy when he said

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

returned his

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in protest against the

Jallianwala Bagh Jallianwala Bagh is a historic Bāgh (garden), garden and ‘memorial of national importance’ close to the Harmandir Sahib, Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, India, Punjab, India, preserved in the memory of those wounded and killed in ...

massacre. In November 2019, Deb claimed, "The Mughals intended to bomb the culture of Tripura". He also stated that international beauty pageants were a farce, and claimed that the decision to award

Miss World Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss Int ...

and

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stre ...

titles to Indian women for five years in a row was market-driven rather than based on the beauty of the participants while questioning the rationale behind awarding

Diana Hayden Diana Hayden (born 1 May 1973) is an Indian actress, television host, model and the winner of Miss World 1997 pageant. She is the third Indian woman to win the title of Miss World. She also won three subtitles during the pageant and is the on ...

the

pageant. In 2020, he claimed that

Punjabis The Punjabis ( Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Panjābīs), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The ...

and

Jats The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subse ...

are physically strong but less intelligent than

Bengalis Bengalis (singular Bengali bn, বাঙ্গালী/বাঙালি ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Deb, Biplab Kumar 1969 births Living people 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis Chief Ministers of Tripura Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Tripura Tripura MLAs 2018–2023 Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party People from Gomati district Tripura University alumni

Early life

Political career

Chief Minister

Controversies

See also

References